Avatar Orion
by EquinoxKnight01
Summary: Avatar Roku needs Aang's help to defeat an Evil Avatar. Aang gathers the old gang together to free the Spirit World from Orion's tyrannical rule. There is bending in the Spirit World. Don't read if you love "logic" in a cartoon world more than you should. HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

**For those who are looking forword to my other FanFiction, I'm sorry. I had the idea in the middle of writing Chapter three for that Story. Before it dissappears from my mind, I need to post it.**

**Disclaimer: Avatar The Last Airbender does not belong to me. This Story is non-profit.**

_**The Timeline of this story is set six years after Aang defeated the Firelord and restored peace to the world.**_

As Aang gets ready for bed, he can't stop thinking of how not just his life, but the world has changed. _"I hope it stays that way." _Aang thought as he splashed water in his face. Now walking back to his bed, he couldn't help but grin. Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. _"She looks so beautiful when she sleeping." _smiled Aang. Laying down next to his wife, Aang was about to fall asleep when a faint blue glow brought him back to the real world. Sitting up abruptly, he saw his old mentor and friend. Forgetting that he was close to Katara's body.

"Avatar Roku!" exclaimed Aang falling out of bed. Standing up, Aang's face was so red you could see it in the dark. "It's not what it's looks like!" whispered Aang trying not to wake Katara up.

"Relax Aang, I'm sorry. I should've waited until morning." said Roku. "I hope I'm not interuppting anything?" teased Roku. This only made Aang's face go impossibly redder.

"No, no, no!" Nothing was happening!" confessed Aang looking like an innocent child about to get a scolding.

"I was only joking Aang." chuckling at his friend's embarrassment. Remembering that he was here on a serious matter, his smile turned to a frown.

Seeing that Roku was frowning Aang realized that something was the real purpose for the visit.

"What's wrong, Roku?"

"Although I wish this was a happy visit in such a long time, sadly something has happened in the Spirit world."

"Did something happen? Is it Hei Bai again? asked Aang anxiously. Anything that would make Roku visit with bad news couldn't be some easy feat. Now noticing Roku staring at Katara with concern, he mind raced even faster at what happened.

"Aang, I think it would be best to take this conversation in another room."

"Uh yea, of course." sighed Aang in relief knowing that Katara wasn't in any danger. "Let's go to the living room, I'll make some tea." said Aang signaling Roku to follow him.

"That would be nice." said politely. _"I can't drink in this form though." _thought Roku.

Now in the living room face to face on opposite couchs, Roku began his story.

"Aang, before I ask for your help, I think I should tell you story of Orion."

"Orion? Who is Orion? What does this have to do with-" Roku held up his hand.

"Let me begin, then I will answer your many questions."

"May I continue, Aang?" embarrassed Aang nodded his head to continue.

As you know, there are past Avatars, that can help and guide you if you call upon them, that are in the Spirit World living as we speak. The cycle of Avatar always changing as the next one is reincarnated to a different nation of benders. Air, Earth, Water, and Fire, the four Great Nations. Acting the role of Avatar, maintaining peace in the world. But, not all of the Avatars have fulfilled their destinys. There was one that sought to rule with his gifts, Orion. Born a Firebender, Orion's control of his element alone could devastate anything that would stand in his path to reign his evil upon the world. Now with the power of Earth and Water could he not only dictate the Fire Nation, but all the other three Great Nations. There was only one element he could not master, Airbending. Not seeing this as a gain to his power he skipped the teachings, boasting that Airbending was a flimsy element to learn.

As he continued to spread his evil across the lands, he discovered another power he had. With his Firebending, he could manipulate the lightining to striking pain and fear into all that disobey him instantly. With Earthbending, he threatened to cause the Earth to quake under the villages unless his enemies surrendered. With Waterbending, possese any of the Resistance armies to attack their own men to cause anarchy at their camps. Bending the blood in their bodies.

Finally with the world at his mercy, he started looking for a new challenge to conquer. He started hunting the source of his Firebending, dragons. Hoping to become even stronger, he slaughtered one by one endlessly. Realizing that he wasn't growing any stronger each kill, he grew furious. Now he was simply hunting them for sport and his entertainment. As headed for another nest, a dragon stopped him as he was leaving. Orion felt that this one was different, seeing that this dragon was bigger than the ones he usually hunted. _"Finally a challenge!" _thought Orion as he got into his earthbending stance. _"All just move the ground from under him and crush him with dragon won't see it coming." _boasted Orion as he laughed at his prey's foolish mistake of not running while it had a chance.

Stomping his foot to create a crater surrounding the dragon, he then raised both his arms. heaving with great effort to bring the Earth from under the dragon. As a large boulder of Earth was floating intimidatingly with the dragon on top, Orion could have sworn that the dragon was smirking.

"How dare you smile! I am Orion, your Conqueror, Spreme Ruler of all Nations!" roared Orion seethingly. As he was yelling he broke his concetration and focus needed to keep the boulder from crashing down. Now flailing his arms, cursing the dragon to think of his skills in Earthbending as a joke, the boulder was now levitating over him.

Orion, now realizing of his blunder, tried to stop the massive chunk of Earth from crashing down on him. But it was too late, his fate was sealed. His own ignorance was his death.

The dragon then hopped off the terrain funeral, it walked over to a nearby cave where it's family was hiding from the murdering invader.

Under all the Earth, Orion, lay crushed and bleeding out the wounds on his arms. Bones crushed and limbs bending in ungodly ways, Orion had the strength to swear _"This is not the end of Orion, I will come again. And I will not stop until I have "control" of everything!"_ Blood now choking him, he allow death to take him.

"Woah, I thought Firelord Sozin was evil... but this guy.. he's a monster." said Aang as Roku finished the story.

"I'm afraid that not all, Aang." said Roku clenching his fists. _"I could have saved you, but I wasn't strong enough." thought Roku sadly._

Aang saw that Roku had tears in his eyes.

"Roku, is Orion in the Spirit World?"asked Aang dumbly. He was not ready for the explosive answer.

"OF COURSE HE'S IN THE SPIRIT WORLD, THAT'S WHERE ALL PAST AVATARS GO WHEN THEY DIE! DIDN'T I JUST TELL YOU THAT!" screamed Roku in sad anger. Aang recoiled into fetal postition. Roku saw this and calmed himself down. _"It's not his fault, it's mine." _thought Roku calmly.

"Aang, forgive me. The destruction Orion has caused me to-" With Roku's voice breaking, Aang unwound himself to see what was causing him Roku to tremble.

"Wha.. what did Orion do to you?" asked Aang hesitantly.

Roku sighed sadly. "He did nothing, but he... he.. he killed my dragon. I was forced to watch as Orion slayed him. I could've stopped Orion, but I was too weak." said Roku, he was now crying and shaking. But calmed himself down after a few minutes. "Forgive me Aang, I-"

Aang embraced Roku, knowing his pain. It's how he felt when Appa was taken from him, almost giving up hope when he couldn't find him.

"Thank you Aang, you were always the kindest of Avatars." said Roku sincerely.

"No problem, old friend."

"I hope this isn't selfish of me..." said Roku sheepishly. "But not only do I need your help, but the rest of the Spirtit World too."

"Of course, what can I do to help?" asked Aang, eagerly wanting to stop Orion.

"We need to go to the Spirit World and face him together, along with the other Avatars."

"Uh Roku, no offense for me asking but, why didn't you ask them for help first?"

"Because, although it would be in everyone's best interest to stop that menace, not all of them are willing to."

"But every one of has the power to use all the elements-" but Roku interuppted him.

"Aang, there is no bending in the Spirit World." Roku said simply.

"THEN HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT HIM? AND WITHOUT BENDING, HOW COULD'VE ORION DEFEATED YOU AND YOUR DRAGON?"

"Aang, calm down. I have a theory. You might wake up your wife."

"Okay, what is it" Aang said as he was calming down before he woke Katara up.

"Yes, like you said, 'How could Orion defeat me?'. For reasons unknown, Orion can bend freely. My theory is; that is bending is so powerful it broke the barrier between the Real World and the Spirit World. Aang, has your bending been acting strange lately?"

"No, not really."

"Good, then my theory is correct."

"What?" asked Aang. _"Now I'm confused, how does my bending acting up relate to Orion's power?" _

"Aang, my time is running out, I have to take my leave. But I will be back tomorrow in the afternoon. Good bye, Aang.

"WAIT ROKU!" yelled Aang. _"No, I still don't get it..."_

What have I gotten myself into?


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N YES! I have a feeling this story is going to be great. That's why I kinda skipped writing Oh My Gods so I could write this chapter instead. Don't worry, I'll get back to my HTTYD fic… Soon… Maybe… Yea… Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. This story is non-profit. **

The phantom of Avatar Roku faded back to the Spirit World and Aang was all alone in the living room. Aang sat back down to the couch with a huff. "What have I gotten myself into now?" Closing his eyes, he tried to clear his mind to think of the best solution. Just like the monks taught him.

"Aang, what are you doing up so late?"

He opened his eyes and looked to his wife. "I'm sorry Katara, did I wake you up?" Aang motioned for her to sit on the couch. Katara walked over sat next to him and snuggled to his side. Staying like that for a while until Katara repeated her question from earlier. Aang sighed.

"Avatar Roku was here." Aang said tiredly, he could feel Katara's body tense up.

"Why? Is something wrong?" It amazed Aang how fast Katara could figure out the situation, but she needed to hear the whole story.

"Yea." Aang said beginning to massage the small of her back, he didn't want her to freak out. "Avatar Roku came here and told me he needs my help in the Spirit World. Ap-"

"What is it? Is it Hei Bei again?" Aang shook his head. Katara's face paled. "Is it the Face-Stealer, Koh?" Aang massaged her back a little harder and tried to get her to relax. This was even worse then Koh, it was a whole new level.

"Katara, relax." I pulled her closer. "It's neither of them." Katara relaxed and the color in her face came back. "But-" She tensed up again. "What Aang?"

Aang took his free hand and rubbed it down his face in exasperation, Aang wasn't mad at her, it's just.. It shouldn't be this hard to explain. Maybe I could go to the Spirit World real quick and- "Aang?"

Aang looked down and saw her cerulean eyes harboring deep concern and all doubt washed away from Aang's mind. "Katara, Roku needs my help with an evil Avatar."

"Evil? How can a Avatar be evil?" she inquired.

"Well, it would make more sense if I told the whole story Roku told me earlier." Aang lifted his arm from Katara and scooted around in his seat to face her. She did the same. Aang then began the story.

_One tragic story later_

Telling Katara the story was harder than Aang thought, but he continued to the very end of the story when Orion died and came back to terrorize the Spirit World. And finished with the death of Roku's dragon.

"Avatar Orion? Aang nodded his head. "Aang, why don't the other Avatar's help defeat Orion? Or any of the other Spirits? Is Roku okay?" He was expecting her to be crying, but she was stronger than he realized. Instead she was just flinging questions left to right. "Katara, there's something else." She paused her stampede of questions and looked up at him. "What?"

"The reason Avatar Roku asked me is because, as you know, Avatar's can't use bending in the Spirit World." Aang furrowed his eye brows to stop Katara from barraging him with another set of questions. "Before Roku left he said that although Avatars can't bend in the Spirit World, Avatar Orion was so evil and powerful that he broke the balance between the worlds of Reality and After Life. He can bend as freely as he did when he was alive." Katara's mouth was gaping but Aang closed it for her by lifting her chin. Then Aang continued. "Roku also had a theory that since the balance is broken, I will be able to bend in the Spirit World since I'm the current Avatar."

Katara nodded her head in agreement. "Well, that does make sense." She stood up and walked back to the bed room. Aang watched as she left, confused at her abrupt leave. Aang stood up and followed her. When he got to the doorway he stood and watched as Katara lit a candle and prepared to write a letter.

"Who are you writing to?" Aang asked still confused of her motives. She motioned for him to sit on the bed and wait. Aang frowned but obeyed and shuffled to the bed. Aang laid down on the bed and huffed as he waited for an answer. But he couldn't keep the frown on his face and stay awake at the same time. So he chose to sleep, he was tired and with the new challenges he'll have to face soon, he needed all the sleep he can get. Besides, Avatar Roku isn't coming back until the afternoon tomorrow.

Katara, now writing a letter, rolled her eyes at Aang's childness behavior. _He can get so grumpy when he doesn't get his sleep. _Katara thought with a smile on face, but it quickly changed to a frown when she remembered the situation and danger he's gonna be in soon. _Concentrate Katara. This is no time to be smiling. _Katara sat up straight and continued to address letters to the Royal Fire Nation, Kyoshi Island, City of Omashu, and lastly The Order of the White Lotus. With all that was at stake she needed everyone's help. For Aang.

She looked backwards and a faint smile came back. Aang looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. Katara turned back around and started writing again.

_NEED HELP! WE'LL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING WHEN YOU GET HERE. HURRY!_

_-Katara_

Katara didn't know how long it would be until Roku would come back to take Aang, so she made the letters urgent to get everyone here quickly._ This was going to be a crazy week for everyone._ Katara thought as she folded up all the letters and made her way to the messenger hawk stables. Sokka gave us "Hawkey Jr." as a wedding present. After giving the bird instructions for where to deliver the letters, she sent the bird on it's way. With that done, she walked back to the bedroom and laid down next to the Airbender. She wrapped the covers around them both and hugged him closer like it might be the last peaceful night they're going to have for awhile. Katara took one last look at her husband and closed her eyes to the calm of dreams.

OoOo

_The Royal Fire Nation Capital - Early Morning_

Poke. Poke. Jab! Jab! "Wake up! I swear you are the laziest Firelord in history!" yelled the Fire Lady, trying to wake up her husband.

"I'm sleepy… five more minutes.." Zuko groaned burying himself deeper into the blankets.

"Get up! This is important." Zuko grunted in protest. Having enough of this game, Mai shoved him off the bed. The Crown Prince yelled in surprise. Mai made her way to the other side of the bed where Zuko was just now sitting up with a scowl on his face. Mai ignored it, "Oh stop being a baby, you can sleep when you're dead." The scowl left his face in defeat, but he still rolled his eyes and picked himself up.

"Now what is _so_ important, that you had to interrupt my only day off in months?" Zuko lifted his hands over his head in exaggeration, now heading for the bathroom.. When Mai didn't say anything, Zuko turned around to face her. Mai was holding a letter out in front of him to read. Her face was painted with worry. Zuko took the letter from her with raised curiosity and sat down at the nearby worktable. He opened the envolope and lit up a candle. After reading the letter he turned back to Mai and gave it to her to read. It didn't say much, and that was what worried Zuko. When she finished reading, she looked up to me in confusion. But I looked away from her just as confused as she was. _This was bad. I just saw them last month and they seemed fine. _Zuko pondered to himself.

"Zuko? What are you thinking?" Mai asked touching his shoulder.

Zuko turned around in his seat. "I don't know, but I feel… all is not well. Something's off." Zuko took Mai's hand in his and squeezed. He let out a sigh and stood up. "Tell the Royal Suitors to start packing, we'll be leaving after breakfast." He made his way to bathroom to get ready for the day. But before he entered the baths, he turned to his wife.

"Mai, I won't force you to come, you can stay here at the Palace-" Zuko was interrupted by a kiss.

"I'm coming with you Zuko." Pulling away from him. "Someone has to protect you."

_Kyoshi Island_

"Hah!" yelled the Southern Water Tribe warrior as he swung his sword skillfully at his opponent.

"Sokka, that was sloppy." Suki said dodging the strike with ease. After the sidestep, she came up behind Sokka and elbowed him in the back, causing him to fall forward into a heap. In the years of peace, Suki hasn't stopped training like a warrior. She still had the skills from when the war started. Dusting herself off, she held a hand out to help him up.

Sokka smacked the hand away, clearly annoyed that this was another sparring match he would add to the several other matches he lost. Suki sighed and went inside the house to make breakfast.

Sokka got himself up and went to the porch to grab his towel, grumbling about the new techniques he learned. "Even if I put my hold body into the swing, it still leaves me open for the opponent to counter." He got the towel and wrapped it around his forehead. Then went inside to join his victor for refeshments. As Sokka walked in he completely ignored Suki as she held out his plate of breakfast for him.

Suki had enough. She knew this would happen. It always happens. Sokka would beg and plead for her to spar with him. Something about testing out a new move he learned. Then when Sokka lost, he would pout and ignore her for the rest of the day. _His pride is making him act like a child. _Suki thought as she sat down to eat her own breakfast. _Now to wait until he cools himself down. _

Rolling her eyes, Suki longs for some kind of action any thing so that she could put her traditional warrior clothes back on again. The end of the war and the era of peace are good, but it's made Suki's life so boring now. Sparring with Sokka is only thing that makes her feel like somebody again. Someone who was born into fighting and spent their whole life training.

Suki cleared her place, not hungry anymore, and wrapped up Sokka's. _He'll be hungry soon. _Then walked to their master bedroom. The room was decorated with a large white polar bear rug in the middle of the room, a massive bed that took up most of the room's space, brown mahogany walls that was specially fitted for this house, a double closet that was shared between the both of us, and finally a vanity and a worktable for when Sokka was tinkering with another invention. Suki couldn't complain, it was nice being honored with a beautifully lavish house for being a member of Team Avatar. After the war, they returned back to Kyoshi Island, recognized as heroes.

Sokka was reaching out the window like he does everyday, waiting for mail to be delivered by his messenger hawk. _Hawkey._

"What do you know, I actually got mail." Sokka said to himself, still ignoring Suki.

Suki rolled her eyes and sat down at her vanity to brush her hair out of the ponytail she had on to fight. She looked straight into the mirrior to played the same game as Sokka. Ignoring him.

If Sokka hated one thing more than anything in the world, it was to be ignored. He knew he was being hypocritical about it, but he couldn't help it since his pride was injured. As Sokka thought about it more, he didn't notice that Suki got up and left the room and went into the washroom. When Sokka looked up and saw that he was alone in the master bedroom, he forgot about it. He went to his worktable on the other side of the room and tore the seal off. Unfolding it, he read the letter, his eyes widening as he finished it. _What could've happened? Unless… NO! He could've have, I just saw him a few months ago. _

Sokka pushed his chair back and stormed towards his closet. He whipped out his Southern Water Tribe warrior uniform and laid it out onto the bed. Then went to the back of the closet and pulled out a heavy chest. Sokka went back to his desk, undid several booby traps to prevent intruders, and pulled out a small box. He opened it and took out a iron key. Sokka unlocked the chest and lifted the lid of the massive trunk slowly, reveling in the moment of finally having the situation to pull out all the stops. Just because the situation called for it.

Sokka went in and pulled out one at a time, his most prized possessions. The first sword he ever made, forged from a meteroite that crashed down that fateful day. Next his traditional Wolf war helmet. He locked it away and promised never to wear it unless I was about to go into another war or if he ever had a son, so that he could pass it down to keep the cycle of his generation. And finally, saving the best for last. A weapon that his mother gave him when he passed the test to become a soldier of the Southern Water Tribe. Something that always got Sokka out of a pinch. His Boomerang.

Sokka beamed at it and remembered the last time he used it. When Sokka and Toph were leading the attack on the armada of Fire Nation war air balloons. He had used it to disarm a fire nation guard before he could burn them both to a crisp. Sokka grimaced when he also had to throw his sword and almost lost it, then looked back down to his boomerang. _But you always come back buddy. _

"What's going on? Why is all your gear out?"

Sokka jumped at the voice. He calmed himself down and frowned at the culprit that almost gave him heart attack. "Don't do that!" Sokka got his breathing back to normal and picked up his weapons to lay them on the bed next to his uniform.

"So you're talking to me now." She said, smirking. Then quick as a flash, she grabbed Sokka's boomerang and put it behind her back.

"Hey! Give it back!"

"Not until you apologize for acting like a child all morning." Sokka blinked his eyes.

"Suki, come on… Ha!" Sokka tried to snatch his boomerang back but Suki was too fast for him and kept it away from him. Sokka tripped and stumbled in front of the foot of the bed. He hit his head on the wood. He started groaning.

Suki was about to end the game and help him, but she held herself. She breathed a sigh of relief when Sokka rubbed his head and started to sit himself up. "I'm waiting Sokka."

Sokka looked down and grumbled something incoherent. "Suki, I'm sormum…"

"What was that Sokka, I couldn't hear that last part."

Sokka got flustered and looked directly into Suki's eyes. "I'm sorry Suki. There, happy now?" Then he turned his head away from her.

Suki walked towards him and sat down in his lap. Sokka tensed up. Suki leaned in and kissed him, fully on the lips. Sokka pushed away his surprise and leaned into the kiss. It was amazing. They both stopped for air. "That wasn't so hard was it?" Suki teased him with another kiss, but this time on the cheek.

"No, not at all." Sokka said, still dazed by the awesome kiss. Suki smiled and got up, much to Sokka's dismay. Then she went over to the her closet and rummaged through it. _I still got it. _

Sokka was still daydreaming, but quickly remembered his mission. He shook the feeling off and stood up. Sokka tensed up again and blushed deeply. Suki had nothing on. "Whoa!" Sokka slapped his hands over his eyes and lunged for the bed, hoping he didn't get caught peeking.

Suki sighed in annoyance. _We've been dating for years and he's still a spaz when it comes to undressing in front of each other. _"Sokka get up, you're not in trouble." She said, now sitting on the bed next to him, while trying to pry his hands away from his face.

Sokka peeked through his fingers to see if she was mad or not. "You're not mad?"

Suki pinched the bridge of her nose. "We've been over this, you can see when I'm undressed, okay?" Suki gently pulled down his hands and smiled. "See?"

Sokka looked down and grinned a ear splitting smile. _Awesome…_ Then he passed out.

Suki had enough of this and stood back up to get dressed. Then at the corner of her eye she saw the letter. She picked it up and read it. _What? _

"Sokka, is this why you were-" Suki looked down to see that her boyfriend was still unconscious. A tick mark formed on her forehead.

"SOKKA WAKE UP!" Suki yelled as she pulled Sokka's body off the bed and onto the floor. Sokka screamed and woke up instantly. He stood up quickly and looked around the room and panic. He leaped onto the ground and retrieved his sword. He held it out and looked around the room for enemies. Suki watched in pure amazement. _He can be quick when he needs to be. _Then Sokka saw Suki, still not wearing anything, and fainted again. _And always be an idiot…_

_Kingdom of Omashu - Earth Kingdom Training Grounds _

"What are you idiots doing? You're not gonna get into the force if that's all you got." The Chief of Earth Kingdom Police screamed at the new fresh meat recruits. Today was the big graduation course. The test was to see if you could go through the whole course, with the Chief of Police judging you as you try to complete it.

Most of the recruits were men and they made the mistake of not taking her seriously. _I'm gonna have fun with them._ "Move! Move! MOVE! HUSTLE!" The eighteen year-old hollered at the annoyed lot of men.

One of the men had guts and yelled back. "Shouldn't you be kitchen making cookies?" The man had a big and intimidating physique, obviously thinking that with it, he was a total badass. The rest of the recruits stopped and laughed. The gutsy man got more courageous with his jeering. "Yea, why don't you go inside and make me a-" But the Chief had heard enough.

She smiled and cracked her knuckles. She began tapping her right foot in a steady rhythm. She was carefully tapping her foot to count all of the rookies that were on the field. _Let's see. 2, 4, 6, huh, about 12. That's more than the last time. _There was a faint trail of earth trailing into a web around the recruits.She stopped tapping her foor and put both her hands up in front of her. She put ten of her fingers pointing to the sky and then slammed the heel of her left foot into the ground. Ten pillars shot up from the ground and were positioned to strike in between the legs of the unlucky souls who were still laughing.

The howling of laughter was quickly replaced with screams of pain and agony. The one who spoke up was looking around, terrified. His hands suddenly went to cover his privates. But right before he could get his punishment, a messenger ran out onto the field yelling.

"Ms. Bei Fong, you have a urgent message from someone named Katara!" Toph sighed and stomped, causing four walls to surround the remaining idiot. The messager finally made to Toph and tried to catch his breath. Toph was already getting impatient. The messager had interrupted when things were about to get fun.

The messager was bent over backwards still trying to calm down after the long jog it took to get to the Training Grounds. "Whew, please forgive me… That took a lot out of me-"

"Just spit it out already! What did the letter say?" Toph yelled, now officially pissed. She cursed at her blindness, otherwise she would've read the letter herself. The messager got flustered and started sputtering out lame apologies. Toph held her hand up to silence him and then took a deep breath, counting to three. _I hate to play this card, but things are going nowhere._ Then her face changed drastically. She beamed at the man and spoke in a cheerful, slightly sarcastic voice.

"Don't worry about it! Please just tell me what the letter said." Toph forced her face into a pitiful pout. "I'm blind, so that means that I can't read the letter myself. So…" She looked up with sad eyes and asked again with a teary voice. "Please read it to me." For extra effect, Toph made a tear fall from her eye.

The messager fell into pieces and started crying at the display. "You're so CUUUTE!" Then the man looked up to a once sad face of a girl to a darkened face of a murderer. A sweat drop slowly fell down the back of the man's head. An evil glint was barely visible on Toph's face, but the man knew he was already doomed. The last thing he heard was a whisper. "Idiot."

Toph launched the man into the sky, probably towards the outer walls of the city. The man screamed while he flew through the air. It eventually faded into the wind. Toph chuckled darkly. _Calling me cute? Big mistake. _

Toph felt a parcel on the ground and walked over to it. _Must've fell off him when I threw him. _She picked it up and sighed. Now she needed to find someone to read it to her now. Toph was about to walk away and go look for someone when she was stopped by a plea for help. Toph turned around and turned her head to where the noise came from. She focused and found out it came from the moron that spoke out. She slowly walked towards the small earth prison with the letter in her hand and an idea forming in her head.

She punched an opening and tossed the letter inside. "Read it, _now." _

There wasn't a peep coming from inside the makeshift prison. Toph could've sworn this is where the noise came from, she could even feel that there was someone in there. "Hey, I know you're in ther-"

"Piss off lady! I ain't scared of you!" The man yelled. Toph smiled, she heard his heart starting to beat faster. He was lying through his teeth. _Might as well have some fun with him. _Toph walked back a few steps and stomped her foot into the ground three times. Nothing happened. Then suddenly the man inside screamed a streak of curses. "Please, no more! I'll talk, I"LL TALK!" The man squeaked out with a high-pitched voice.

Toph smiled. _That was too easy._ "Hey, Numbnuts! I don't have all day! Or should I do _it_ again?" She giggled at the sound of the moron scampering around, trying to find the piece of paper like his life depended on it. _Or the fact of him never having children. _

"OK! I found it! It says 'Need help. We'll explain everything when you get here. Hurry!' That's all it says, I swear!" He yelled through the opening, going so far as to putting his lips through it. But Toph didn't hear him, she was thinking of who it could've have come from. "Hey!" The man screamed in terror. Toph rolled her eyes. "Relax, I just want to know who's it from. Does it say?"

"Uh yea, it does." He said dumbly. His voice was starting to come back to normal.

Toph face palmed. Then she gave the man another round. After he stopped howling in pain, Toph asked again. "Who is it from, you idiot?"

A squeaky whisper came out. "K-katara…"

Toph blinked. _Katara? _Toph turned and bolted for her house. _Katara would never joke about something like this, gotta hurry up and pack. _She finally got to her building and yanked the door open to her room. The house was simple, the only thing that was missing was furniture. She got tired of ramming her foot into them and finally snapped, earth bending them out of the window. She closed her eyes and took a few second to recognize her surroundings then she went to her bedroom. Toph got to her bed and felt around for her trunk of clothing. Since she was blind and didn't want a nosy personal assistant, she instead got a large trunk where she would store her clothes. Even though she didn't know what the situation was, she got out her old war gear. The gold and green helmet that could also act as a shield, four weight bracelets that she used for extreme sparring, and finally her old outfit she wore on the Day of the Black Sun. She quickly got dressed and went ran outside. Lugging the what looked like to be a heavy trunk on strapped to her back with ease.

Coming to a stop, she felt that she was at the ferry. She pushed through the waiting line and took her first-class passport out of her pocket. She slammed it down on the checking in stand and waited for it to be approved. "One ferry ride to the Western Air Temple." She spoke in a demanding tone, she was in a hurry and didn't care about the angry crowd of travelers behind her.

The man behind the counter was obviously mad that Toph skipped the line. "Miss, you have to wait like everybody else-" He stopped mid-sentence when Toph plopped a piece a priceless gold coins. Each engraved with the symbol of a Winged-Boar. The Counter man drooled at the sight, but gathered himself and stamped the passport. After giving Toph her ticket, he bowed and smiled. "Have a nice journey, Ms. Bei Fong." Toph grabbed the ticket and went to the boats, knocking out the Counter man with her trunk. _The trip will take about 3 hours. I hope I won't be too late and miss the action. _Toph smiled and got into her seat.

_The Jade Dragon - Secret Meeting base for the Order of the White Lotus_

"Iroh, I almost wish there were more of these boring meetings so we could all enjoy your wonderful tea."

"Indeed, it's nice to take a break once in awhile and relax."

"Now Pakku and Piandao, you will always have a cup of tea on the house. You two are my best friends." Iroh smiled at the both of them. They nodded back in gratitude. Then Piandao lowered his head. "This would be like old times, if Bumi was still here." Pakku and Iroh both nodded in agreement.

Sadly the old King has died due to old age. But his legacy will always be remembered thanks to the massive statue that was erected in both Ba Sing Se and the City of Omashu. The Order of the White Lotus insisted that the statue capture Bumi's crazy fun-loving child's side. The statue is of Bumi standing tall, his eyes sparkling and smiling at all who pass by it, with the eyes just right. A very animated look on it's stone face. The artist even got the crazy smile just right. It took the whole Earth Kingdom Army and a few of the generals to move it into place, but the results were worth it. The children always played and ran around the momument with screams of joy and laughter.

"Yes, Bumi was a good king and a great friend." Iroh said with a heavy heart. Bumi was always there to liven up every meeting with his crazed sense of humor.

"To Bumi." Pakku raised his cup, promoting a toast in Bumi's honor. Iroh and Piandao raised theirs too. The clink was a quiet one, but all of them imagined it was the sound of Bumi's contagious laughter. They drank and relaxed into the chairs of the parlor.

*Ring*

There was no one in the Tea Shop because it was dawn. The shop didn't open until noon. But when Iroh heard the ring of someone coming in, he got up and checked to see who it was. Once he pushed the backdoor to the shop open, Iroh was greeted by the apologetic face of his most favorite customer, Jin. Although she was rejected by Zuko, she still came by everyday after school to talk to him. She even helped out around the shop, waiting tables for him without asking for pay. Iroh always enjoyed her company.

"I'm sorry Iroh, am I interrupting one of your meetings?" Jin pouted. Iroh smiled and put a hand on her shoulder to lead her inside the backroom. "No Jin, you didn't interrupt anything. Please come in, Pakku and Piandao are already inside."

Piandao looked up from his drink and smiled. "Yes, we're just a bunch of old farts drinking tea." Despite always being serious, Piandao always joked when it was just with his long-time friends.

Everyone laughed. After everyone calmed down, Jin's face brightened and remembered something important. "Oh Iroh, there was messager that wanted me to give this to you." Jin took out a scroll and gave it to him.

Iroh took it with a slightly confused look. Iroh had already gotten a letter listed with patrol reports a few days ago. He wasn't expecting anymore mail. Iroh undid the seal and pulled the paper down to read it's contents. As he read his mind began to fill with questions. _This sounds urgent. What could've happened? _

Pakku saw Iroh's worried face first. "What is it Iroh? Did something happen?"

Iroh folded the scroll back up and set it down on the table. He sat down and stroked his beard in deep thought. "Katara has sent me a message of urgency. Now that I think of it, something feels… Wrong." Iroh pondered out loud.

"Is she in trouble?" Jin asked, now worried.

"No, it just said to meet them. She said to hurry."

Piandao set his cup down. "Well, when do we leave?"

Iroh paused and looked over to him. "No no, I couldn't possibly ask you to travel with me to the Western Air Temple. You don't have to-"

"Then don't." Pakku chimed in. "If you need out help, you're going to get it. If you want it or not." Piandao nodded in agreement.

Iroh smiled and looked to his friends. "Thank you both, I can always count on you guys."

Iroh felt a hand on his arm. He turned around to face a very determined Jin. "Me too Iroh. What can I do to help?" She said, ready to go to war if she had to.

Iroh grabbed her hand in both of his. "Jin, I need someone to look after the shop. I hope I can trust you to look after it while I away. Can you do that for me?" Jin's grip tightened.

"B-but!" She had tears in her eyes. Iroh pulled her into a gentle hug.

"Please Jin, you will help me more if you stayed here and manage the shop." He pulled her away from the hug and held her by the shoulders. "This place is my dream. Will you please take care of it?"

Jin wiped her tears away and smiled weakly. "Of course Iroh." Iroh shared a smile with her too.

"Thank you Jin."

Jin turned around and walked out, probably to start preparing tea for when the shop would open.

Iroh turned back to Piandao and Pakku. "Okay Pakku, I'm going to need you to get the fastest animals you can find. I don't want to be too late for anything." Pakku nodded and walked past him to exit the shop.

Iroh looked at Piandao. "I need you to gather all your gear and best weapons. We need to be prepared for anything." Piandao also nodded and left.

Iroh went over to an open window and bowed in front of it. He got two candles and set them on the windowsill, lighting both of them with fire bending. Then he sat down on his knees and bowed. He put his hands together and prayed that they would have a safe journey and for the protection of everyone who is involved. Standing up, Iroh went to the door and left the room. He went into his room and started packing food and other necessities. _I hope when we get there, we won't be too late._

**(A/N Sorry for not updating this story. I have great plans for it, but when it was receiving a lot of reviews, I thought it was a bad read. But I don't care anymore. I want to see this story finished. The plot keeps flowing out of my head. I feel as though when I'm done, I'm gonna be proud I wrote it. So yea. And thank you AangsForeverGirl for answering my questions. Laters! **_**I feel so excited with this awesome badass title: Avatar Orion XD**_


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N EquinoxKnight01: "Epic new profile picture?"**

**Check.**

"**Epic new chapter of your epic story 'Avatar Orion'?"**

**Check.**

"**Correct disclaimer?" **

**I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. This story is non-profit.**

**Check.**

"**Then what's left?"**

**EquinoxKnight01: "What's left? For 'you', the reader, to sit back and enjoy. Or rather, be on the edge of your seats."**

_Spirit World…_

"P-please, m-mercy!" The aged baboon pleaded.

The man smirked. "Very well."

The baboon relaxed into his deep burns and cut wounds.

"I will show mercy by… MAKING THIS A SWIFT DEATH!" The monkey didn't have any time to jump out of the way, before getting burnt to a crisp. His scream was morphed as the fire went straight into his lungs and dried them out. While trying to gasp for air, the man laughed the whole time. The man didn't let up until he was satisfied with his work. There was nothing left of the pompous primate, just charred remains. This wasn't the first time the man has done this. Something about the world he was now in, reanimated the dead back to life. As if they were never killed by his own hand. Sighing, the man walked away, hoping to find another unlucky victim.

"I like your fire, young one." A powerful calm voice boomed, demanding respect.

The executer swung his head to the source of the voice. His eyes were met with molten golden eyes the man had. "You're of the Fire Nation…" The man whispered to himself.

The mysterious man heard this and chuckled darkly. "Is that what they're calling us these days. Ah, I remember when it used to be Inferno Country." The mysterious gentleman shook his head, obviously fond of the memories.

The murderer's temper flared. He did not like feeling like he was being ignored. "You! Since you're from the Fire Nation, what is your rank?"

The mysterious man grew an even wider grin. "Rank? What is this?" He said, toying with the other man's emotions.

The perpetrator's rage flew to even greater heights. "I'm guessing you're a soldier rank, obvious from your lack of intelligence." Now it was the murderer's turn to smirk.

The mysterious man's grin vanished. His face took the look of annoyance. "Hold your tongue, fool. You will address, the Great Avatar Orion, with respect." Orion crossed his arms over his chest and waited for the man to bow down before him.

Upon hearing this, the slaughterer's face paled. While he was at the Great Library studying everything there was recorded of the Spirit World, he stumbled upon a lost chapter on evil spirits. He cleared the whole desk and opened the aged scrolls. Reading through, he witnessed an invaluable piece of history, there was an evil Avatar that once lived hundreds of years ago. During the time, the Avatar took over the other three nations by himself, with his wide range of unfathomable bending. The world was under his evil control. He was unstoppable, with his endless amount of knowledge and skills from all the other past Avatar lives. Continuing with his research, he found that the name of this great Avatar was one that was feared by all even today, Avatar Orion.

The man immediately fell to his knees and bowed in respect to the immortal emperor. "Please forgive me, Lord Orion. I should've known of your Excellency from just the beginning."

"Hmm, just this once. But never come out of line again, or I'll show you the same mercy you showed that monkey earlier. _But a slow and painful death." _Orion's voice took a lower threatening note. "Now rise."

The man obeyed. "You have my thanks, Lord Orion."

Orion ignored the gratitude and walked towards the man. He then inspected the man by slowly circling around the man. "Strange. You are different. Not a spirit. But you have a solid form of the living. Explain this." Orion said, ending his observation.

"Yes, Lord Orion. Before I died, I was leading an invasion. The true objective of the mission was of my own personal goal." The man looked away in shame. "The mission was a success but…"

Orion raised an eyebrow. "But what? And show respect. Look me in the eye."

The man raised his head and spoke again. "Forgive me Lord Orion. As I was fighting a traitor to the Fire Nation, one of the Spirits got hold of me and drowned me." The man saw Orion furrow his eyebrows. The man quickly finished the report. "When I came to, I was in this mysterious realm."

"Hmm. Abnormal." Orion looked up then closed his eyes in concentration. "Although your story seems to be missing some bits and pieces, I'll believe in faith that you wouldn't be foolish enough to lie to me." Orion turned away and began walking. He waved his hand. "Come, young… What do they call you?"

The man straightened and walked briskly to catch up to the Avatar. "Please, call me Lieutenant."

"Very well. Come, I'll allow you to serve me."

The lieutenant followed closely, not wanting to miss an opportunity of a lifetime. Well, of the strange afterlife world that they were in now. Once again catching up to his new lord, something still bothered the Lieutenant. "My Lord?"

"What is it now, young Lieutenant?" Avatar asked, not breaking his pace.

"May I ask what your plans are for the future?"

"You may. And to answer your question. Firstly, we will find a suitable castle. A base of operations if you will. After that, I will recruit others to join my ranks."

"Excellent idea, My Lord." The Lieutenant praised. If he wanted to stay with the strongest Avatar in history, the Lieutenant would swallow his pride and grovel he had to. A powerful ally is always best in a battle unknown.

"Of course it is. Now I have a question for you if you're not still busy kissing my hands and feet?"

The Lieutenant clenched his fist until it bled and kept his fire breath in control. "_What is your question, My Lord._" The Lieutenant hissed carefully.

Avatar Orion chuckled. "Now, now. Use that anger when you're fighting. My question is, have you ever ridden a dragon before."

The Lieutenant blinked. He had never seen a living dragon before nonetheless rode on one before. The very thought that Lord Orion could summon a legendary creature at will did only deeply impress the Lieutenant. "My Lord, I've never seen one in my past life…" The Lieutenant asked eagerly. "Excuse my excited state, My Lord. May I ask that you excuse my next question as well."

The Avatar didn't seem fazed by his second in command's enthusiasm. "Very well."

"Thank you, your Excellency. Are you able to summon the flying beast?"

"Summon? Impossible. It's not as simple as blowing a whistle." Avatar Orion laughed at his own joke but the Lieutenant was too concerned with the upcoming information. "No, but there is a method similar to that." Orion stopped while the Lieutenant tripped over a little at the sudden halt.

"Young Lieutenant, move away a few paces."

The Lieutenant did as he was told quickly. He was at least a mile away until Orion told him that that was far enough. "Is this far enough, My Lord!" The Lieutenant yelled from his distance.

Orion simply put his hand in the air, ignoring him. What came next was literally explosive. With just that one hand, Orion created a massive discharge of fire equivalent to that of an active volcano. The incandescent flames was white in color with a tint of blue mixed in. If the colossal show of fire mastery didn't frighten even the most fearsome creatures of the real world, the killing intent would bring anyone and anything to their knees.

From where the Lieutenant stood, there was still a fair amount of unbearable heat. The scalding temperatures and the blinding light made the Lieutenant feel like he was on the Sun itself. He fell into fetal position and covered his eyes. Terrified that his life would go blind and melt where he stood, ending his mysterious afterlife.

As soon as it started it ended and the atmosphere quickly reverted back to it's eerie cold state. A little too fast for the Lieutenant because it felt like he was about to go into shock.

"Stand up, young Lieutenant. The creature will come soon. At the first sight of weakness, it will strike without hesitation." Orion informed coldly, waiting for the Lieutenant to gather himself.

"My apologies, your Greatness." The Lieutenant said in utmost respect. Avatar Orion's show of power kicked the Lieutenant's brown-nosing into overdrive.

"Your first time serving me and you've already made me stretch my mercy to unfamiliar limits. Make no mistake, Lieutenant. You will always be at the ready, you will never put your guard down, and you must do exactly what I say with no objection. If not, I will not hesitate to kill you where you stand. Do I make myself clear, Lieutenant?"

The Lieutenant immediately stood taller and regained his posture. "I will fight until my last breath for your will, Lord Orion." The Lieutenant saluted to his one and true master. He was embarrassed that he would become undignified in the very presence of Lord Orion. The Lieutenant swore that it would never happen again as he came up from his bow.

Orion deemed his Lieutenant's vow true. "Now prepare yourself. The beast should be coming any moment now. The foolish beast will try to attack us at first. I would usually teach it to know it's place. But this seems like the perfect audition for you to show me your fire mastery. Do you accept my challenge, young Lieutenant?"

"I agree with great fervor, My Lord." The Lieutenant said impassioned, grinning mischievously. It was finally his chance to let loose. And as a "kill two birds with one stone" scenario, the Lieutenant would also ensure his place right next to Lord Orion. But before the Lieutenant could fully get into his zone he needed to make sure of something else.

"My Lord, why did you bend such a magnificent show?"

Orion laughed outwardly. "Ha. Young Lieutenant, that was nothing special. That was my bona fide bending!" Orion chuckled.

The Lieutenant cringed.

"To answer your question. Dragons are simple-minded, they are attracted to a high temperature area. That's why they inhabit volcano caves."

The Lieutenant waited for more but Orion didn't say anything else. The Lieutenant put it into the back of his mind to inquire more on the subject later, because as of right now he had to focus his anger into his bending. He would have to go back to the teachings of his former idiotic master that thought fire wasn't just about death and destruction. The Lieutenant shook his head from the stupidity and thought about the future. The slaying of the beast, the well deserved position next to the Great Avatar Orion, becoming an apprentice to Orion! And all the Lieutenant had to do was what he did best.

Kill.

OooOooO

_Sokka and Suki - Early Morning_

"My head is killing me! And the way my Eel is running isn't making it any better!" Sokka whined while rubbing his hand with one hand, the other had a vice grip on the rein to his Eel Hound.

"Trust me, it isn't your Eel. It was own fault for fainting so many times." Suki said, snapping her reins to make her Eel go faster than it already was.

"Maybe, if a certain someone wasn't flashing me in surprise…" Sokka muttered under her breath.

"What? Are you serious? Fine, it will not happen again. That's a promise."

"No, no, no. I love it, it's just that the situation wasn't planned. Like the setting didn't call for you to undress. The mood was to rush to pack." Sokka theorized.

"Must everything go according to plan, Sokka?" Suki asked incredulously. "I mean, really? The war has been over for years! You don't have carry the responsibility to time everything to a tight schedule. You still freak out on Day Light Savings for God's sake!"

"I did not "freak out", I was just caught by surprise."

"Yeah, sure. No more talking from here on. We have to really haul ass if we want to get to the Temple before night."

Sokka chuckled. "It's funny because that what the Eel's are doing now." Sokka countined to laugh until Suki's glare stopped him abruptly. "No! I'm not implying that you're an ass, just your being. Wait no! Not like your being is an ass. You have a ass, you don't have any characteristics of being an ass… Ok, you have a nice athletic ass and a very sweet personality! Yea! Because-" By now Sokka was blathering to appease his own stupid joke.

Suki was already ignoring him until he mentioned her ass for the fourth time already. _Sokka, you're lucky you're cute…_ Suki thought, leaning closer to her saddle as if to go faster.

XxxXxxX

_Suki and Sokka - Three hours later… _

Sokka, already finished with his meal, began retying the fishing net while Suki finished her lunch.

"Oh yea, that hit the spot." Suki smiled as she rubbed her stomach contently.

"Aren't you glad you have a great fisherman with you?" Sokka said, propping on his elbow with a toothpick I his mouth.

Suki rolled her eyes. "Sokka, you caught the bait. I got three Salmons and two Rainbow Trout."

"Yeah ok, but without my bait you would've caught nothing. So HA!"

"Of course. Thank you, Sokka." Suki gave it to Sokka just this once, she was getting sleepy from lunch. Suki shook it off and repacked the fishing spears into the bag. Then she got the leftover fish scraps and fed them to the Eels. They didn't eat much of the extra worm bait Sokka caught, so Suki gave her Eel the fish.

Sokka carefully picked out various worms, not wanting to feed his Eel anything else besides what he read on Eel Hounds.

As soon as everything was packed, they set off for the Temple. Surprisingly, they made great time with the Eel Hounds. In about an hour, they could already see the flat plains of the Air Temple.

Sokka got off his hound and started unpacking his climbing gear quickly, as if everything was already a competition with Suki nearby. Sokka slammed the spike into the ground and hammered down on it until it was firmly placed. Then he tied a sailor's knot around the base of the spike.

Suki saw that Sokka was almost down, but she just laughed. "Sokka, Aang earth-bended stairs years ago when he first moved back here for good."

Sokka stopped just as he looped the rope around himself. He looked dumbstruck at the entrance to the stairs. "Damn it!" Sokka yelled, reversing all the steps to setting up the equipment. He stuffed everything back into his pack and then trudged over to the stairway entrance. Suki hid her smile until Sokka descended down the stairs.

Sokka was muttering all the way down. "_Stupid convenient stairs popping up-"_ Sokka cut himself off and paused just over a step. He hunched over and scanned left to right, inching towards his boomerang. Then he closed his eyes and focused on listening for the noise that stopped him in the first place to repeat itself.

"_Sokka, what is it?" _Suki asked behind Sokka, whispering to withhold their position.

Sokka put his index finger to his mouth, signaling to be quiet. He unsheathed his boomerang and observed into it's reflection. His eyes widened and his expression changed from surprised to serious. Sokka's eyes narrowed, then he threw his boomerang is a random direction. Then Sokka did something crazy. He vaulted over the handrail without skipping a beat.

"SOKKA!" Suki looked over the railing to see Sokka plummet to his death. Instead she saw Sokka attach himself to one of the Temple pillars and scaled downward carefully using his sword. Suki breathed a sigh of relief then bolted down the stairs to meet Sokka at the bottom of the upside down Western Air Temple platform. Suki still didn't know what alerted Sokka so much that he would do something so reckless, but she would be there for the fight. Suki was practically jumping down all the steps of the stairs. After leaping down several floors of stairs, Suki finally made it to the Fountain lounge room. Suki got her fans out and got into her battle stance. She waited for any signal to give away their, the enemies, location. After the serene sound of the Fountain filled the air for minutes, Suki relaxed slightly and stood up straight. _Where is the action? _She thought aloud while walking towards the falling water pond. She sat by the pool's edge and looked around. _Nothing. No enemies._

Sokka continued down the pillar until there was no more left and leapt off to the platform below. He landed and rolled forward. He stood and looked around the area. His eyes stopped on an ajar door. He gripped his sword tighter and crept towards the entrance. He made it quietly without alerting whoever was inside. He heard a noise and backed away from the door quickly, running to hide behind a pillar opposite from the door.

Aang walked out of the door and scratched the side of his head.

From inside a familiar female voice yelled. "Aang, where are you going? We have to finish packing before everyone gets here!" Katara announced.

"Thought I heard someone out here-" Aang cut himself off and looked sideways towards a pillar, unfortunately, that wasn't the one Sokka was hiding behind.

Sokka was about to jump out and attack but he heard the familiar sound of his boomerang swinging back around to his location. Sokka smiled and stayed behind the pillar to let his boomerang cause a distraction.

"Why does it smell like meat out here?" Aang wondered aloud. Sokka tensed up.

The boomerang came to the rescue right as Aang turned his head to the pillar Sokka was hiding behind. Aang heard it's signature whooshing sound and ducked his head just in time to dodge the boomerang. Aang, a little more tense since the surprise attack from the boomerang, was about to tap his foot on the ground to investigate his surroundings. But the moment Sokka's boomerang flew by Aang's head, Sokka jumped out from behind his hiding place and drew his sword out. Sokka had his sword drawn right in front of Aang's neck, Aang froze up and went wide-eyed. Now that Sokka had Aang right where he wanted him, he wanted to ask the obvious question at this point.

"Did you knock up my sister?" Sokka asked with a serious no nonsense.

Aang was taken aback by the blunt straight forward question. "What?" The only thought that crossed through Aang's head and spoke.

Sokka pressed the blade ever so slightly closer to Aang's neck. "Did. You. Knock. Up. My. Sister?" Sokka said every word bringing his sword closer to Aang's neck. Before Aang could react, Sokka was struck by a surprise attack.

WHIP!

"AH!" Sokka stumbled backwards, holding his head with a pained expression on his now soaking face.

"Sokka, you idiot! Why would you even ask a question like that?"

"Argh, what are you talking about?" Sokka picked himself up and rubbed the sore spot on his forehead, courtesy of his sister's water whip. "You send out a emergency letter and make me rush all the way over here! The only logical explanation is that you're pregnant and Aang now has a death wish!" Sokka sheathed his sword and stuck his hand out in the air. A moment later, his boomerang flew into his hand.

Katara pinched the bridge of her nose. Her brother still hadn't changed over the years, still jumping to the only possible conclusion that makes sense to himself alone. "Sokka, I'm not pregnant and you are NOT going to have to kill Aang. Not like you could if you wanted to anyways."

Sokka narrowed his eyes. "Where were you a few seconds ago? I had him on the ropes." Sokka sent a smirk towards Katara. "Must be getting soft since settling down with my sister, huh Aang? You would've never left your guard open like that in the good ole' days… GAH!"

WHIP!

"WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT?" Sokka held his aching head.

"Will you stop acting so arrogant?" Katara asked checking her nails, ignoring the withering glare Sokka was sending her way. The stare down between the two siblings came next.

"Uh, guys…?" Aang started with a meek voice. Sokka was right about something, just like a few years ago Aang was always stuck in the middle, feeling awkward.

"What did I miss?"

All three, well mostly Aang since Katara and Sokka didn't break their heated eye contact, looked towards the newcomer. Suki of Kyoshi Island, Sokka's wife.

"Hey Suki, good to see you again." Aang beamed at her. He was glad their was someone else here now, maybe she could help him escape from this awkward situation.

"You too, Aang. But do you mind telling me what the emergency is?" Suki asked, cutting the polite greetings. "The letter sounded urgent…" Suki's sentence fell off as her went over to her husband glaring at her sister in-law. "What's with them?" Suki asked Aang, who was slumping his shoulders.

"Sokka attacked me and questioned me to see if I got Katara pregnant. Katara got mad that he asked and then they had a fight. Now they're glaring at each other." Aang sped through his explanation and then rubbed the back of his neck.

Suki was flabbergasted for a moment then her face heated up. She stormed over to Sokka and smacked him upside the head. That broke the stare down.

"AH! Why is everyone hitting me today?" Sokka exclaimed, one hand nursing his head, the other hovering over his sword's hilt.

"Why are you asking Aang such a question?" Suki threw her hands into the air. "You can ask a insensitive question, but you still faint when I undress in front of you?" Suki put her fingers to her forehead and opened her hand with the other on her hip.

"Shhhh! Don't say that out loud!" Sokka waved his hands in front of his wife.

Katara snorted.

"Guys, guys. Let's all calm down. We should all come inside and talk this over with some tea or something. Roku is going to come by later today so we better get ready and wait for the others." Aang tried his peacemaker card. It worked for the moment and the tension was lowered for now… But then the base of the temple shook.

BOOM!

Earth exploded and was sent flying in all directions. Everyone lost their footing and fell down backwards. When the dust cleared, everyone was back on their feet and on alert for whoever caused the explosion.

"Now that's how you make an entrance!"

_I'm starting to regret getting the gang back together… _Aang thought as he rubbed his temples.

OooOooO

_Zuko and Mai - The Royal Dragon Escort Balloon - Morning_

"Did we really need to take the Royal Escort Balloon?" Mai asked from her seat in the Royal parlor located in the massive escort, cleaning her various blades. She had on layered robes that were shaded between violet and maroon, black arm guards, and finally pointed Flying Komodo scaled boots.

"Yes. Unless you wanted to take the Royal Bearers all the way to the Western Air Temple?" Zuko asked rhetorically from his recliner with his eyes closed, relaxing most of the time from the start of the trip. Zuko would never demand for such a foolish request. His goal was to be a fair Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, nothing like his previous successors. He was currently dressed in his formal wear, a crimson metal armor shirt with gold plated armors going down the sides and upper torso, a black pair of weight pants with shining metal leg guards, and lastly a pair of expensive leather and steel-toed boots that were actually very comfortable and durable at the same time.

"At least I would be cooped up in this flying metal contraption." Mai sighed as she carefully set down her poisoned darts on her worktable. "Yes, it nice and big and as everything a wilderness expert could have wish for…" Mai spoke that last part sarcastically. "But we could've taken Lu Ten or something with more… I don't know, freedom."

Lu Ten is the name of the young dragon that Zuko adopted when he was on one of his secret refugee sneak outs in disguise. He came across in an underground fight club for animals. Angered by such a cruel event happening in his own nation, Zuko had everyone arrested and the animals sent to be treated at the Inferno City Zoo. When everything was done with, Zuko personally wanted to burn the establishment down to the ground. But before Zuko began, he heard the screeching of an animal he thought was extinct for a hundred years. A dragon's call. Zuko rushed to call off the Royal Fire Squad and quickly ordered for everyone to search the abandoned warehouse. After a two hours, the search heeded results. Zuko made it to the scene and was shocked as much as everyone else. A dragon had been hiding inside of an old stove oven. The soldier that found the rare beast tried to lure the dragon out, but to no avail. Zuko told everyone to leave the room. Now alone in the run down kitchen, Zuko slowly approached the oven. H carefully opened the hatch and peered inside to get a closer look at the creature. The dragon was a deep purple with a single red flame-like scar on the side of it's face, four small ivory horns growing out, and was a little bigger in size compared to Aang's flying lemur, Momo . Zuko beckoned for it to come, promising that he wouldn't hurt it. The dragon didn't budge, just simply backed up farther into the oven. Zuko tried another strategy, he held his hand out and concentrated to make a small fire in the palm of his hand. Zuko smiled as the dragon's eyes lit up and watched the flame with a intense curiosity. Zuko tried once again to lure the dragon out but the dragon was still hesitant, so Zuko changed the color of the fire to blue, then purple, and green, and yellow with a hint of white! The dragon moved closer to the prince's hand and curled against it, reveling in the warmth. Zuko put in his other hand to gently lift the dragon out of the oven. From that day four years ago, Zuko has raised it to a teenage dragon and named him Lu Ten in honor of his cousin.

"Lu Ten has been sick lately. I didn't want him flying us through the harsh conditions of this season." Zuko reminded Mai for the umpteenth time that morning. Zuko was like a mother to Lu Ten, always babying the gentle beast.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Zuko couldn't see her with his eyes closed but Mai rolled her eyes anyway. "You always pamper him even though he could take your head in a split second."

"The day Lu Ten would ever hurt me will be the day you start wearing bright pink." Zuko chuckled.

Mai snorted and set down the last of her newly polished blades. She stood up and made her way to Zuko's chair. Then she plopped herself in his lap, ignoring his yell of surprise. "I'd rather stab my eyeballs with my own knife than to wear anything close to that dreadful color." Mai confirmed making herself comfortable in Zuko's lap.

"You used to wear violet and red robes back then. You're closer to the color pink than if you were wearing green." Zuko lifted Mai up and sat her down so her back was against his chest. "But personally, I like you better in your new armor." Zuko said pulling Mai closer. He breathed a little fire next to her hair.

Mai lifted Zuko's arms away from her waist and got up. She laughed at Zuko's pitiful look and straddled his thighs where he sat. "Mmm, and what is it you like about this new armor exactly?" Mai asked, putting both of her hands to either side of Zuko's head and leaning in until their noses were practically touching. Zuko's cheeks blushed fiercely. "Is it because it hugs my curves perfectly?" Mai leaned back and put her hands behind her head, posing for Zuko. The outfit was very form-fitting. "Or is it because it squeezes me?" Mai asked coyly, referring to her bust that were lifted by the top she had on.

Zuko meekly looked down at them and then quickly went back to Mai's face. "Uh, all of the above?"

Mai smiled and pushed herself closer to Zuko, chest to chest. "Good answer." She leaned in, about to reward him for his correct answer.

"My Lord, we have arrived to the Western Air- Oh my!"

Both Mai and Zuko froze and looked to the door where a very flustered Royal Soldier stood. Zuko got out of it first and cleared his throat. "Thank you for the update. I- _We _will be in the docking bay shortly."

"Please forgive my intrusion, My Lord! Excuse me!" The soldier bowed and bolted out of the parlor room.

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and then looked back towards Mai. "We could continue if you want?" Zuko looked at her with hopeful eyes.

But Mai shot him down. "No, that definitely killed the mood. We'd better get ready to greet Aang and Katara in the Temple." Mai already started getting up.

Zuko slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Right. Duty calls."

Before Mai walked out of the room, she came back to Zuko and gave him a brief lingering kiss. "Are you a little less gloomy now?" She said as she pulled away from the kiss.

"A little." Zuko smiled down at Mai.

"Good, because gloomy is my thing." Mai chuckled before turning around and sashaying out of the room.

Zuko caught up to her and sneaked a grab on her rear. "Don't forget sexy." He smirked at her wide surprised eyes.

"You better keep your hands to yourself when we're in the Temple. Aang might faint at the very sight of public displays of affection." Mai laughed.

"Aang is eighteen now, I doubt he's still as innocent as he was when he was younger." Zuko stated, turning a corner in the long hallway towards the docking bay entrance.

"Wanna bet?"

"And what do I get when I win?" Zuko asked smugly.

Mai rolled her eyes. "Well, when I win, you have to do my every whim for a month after this whole ordeal is over."

"How is that any different from what I'm doing now?" Zuko said incredulously. "Ah!"

Mai tugged on his ponytail for his smart ass remark. "I was going to go easy on you by making you bring me tarts and pastries, but after that little comment, you'll have to romance me whenever I say."

Zuko raised an eyebrow. "Now I really don't mind losing. Is that the best you can come up with?"

Mai smirked up at him. "Hmm, you won't be saying that when I keep you up all night everyday for four weeks. No sleep for poor ZuZu." Mai laughed as Zuko glared at her for using that despicable pet name.

Zuko continued to glare at her until he got a brilliant idea for revenge. "When I win, you have to wear whatever I say for a month."

"Whatever, you'll probably have me wear no clothes at all." Mai said indifferently.

"Tempting. But I'd much rather see you in a lovely shade of… Bright. Pink." It was Zuko's turn to chuckle at Mai's angry expression.

"_Hell. No._" Mai said with her voice lowered and probably dripping with the same venom on her darts.

"You say that like you're already defeated." Zuko sped up his walk to dodge any retaliation from Mai.

Mai calmed down but still looked irritated. "If I wear pink, you can forget about seeing me naked anytime soon." Mai smiled as she saw Zuko slightly cringe from her last statement.

"Alright, we'll deal with this later…" Zuko said as the both of them finally made it to the boarding bay doors. Zuko tightened his hair and smoothed his robes.

"Fine." Mai stood up straighter as the doors geared up to open.

"My Lord, we've waited for your command. Shall I dock at the top of the whole Western Air Temple ground or shall I fly the ship down to the suspended pillars?" Captain Maito of the Royal Vessel asked with a strong seasoned voice.

"Fly the ship down and attach the anchors to the pillars by the fountain. The stairs leading down to the actual Temple will make short work of my wife, Mai." Zuko grinned backwards at his annoyed wife.

Everyone knew of Zuko and Mai's public sarcastic banter that would occur now and then, but it didn't stop the tension in the room from the crew that tried their very best not to laugh at the other's expense.

Captain Maito expertly stifled a laugh and bowed before giving out orders. "Lower the ship down the trench! Shoot the anchors directly at the platform near the fountains! Let's go! Be swift for our Fire Lord!"

"Hail, Fire Lord Zuko!" The entire crew yelled before getting to work.

"Hail the blue-balled Fire Lord!" Mai snorted as she smacked Zuko upside the head for that last joke.

The Royal Guardsmen flinched, but otherwise did nothing. As if they could lift a finger against the Fire Lady. One of the previous members of the squad was foolish enough as to ask permission to put the Fire Lady in her place after she swatted Zuko's forehead for a humorous remark. Said soldier was immediately relieved of duty, but not before scarred for life by Zuko's withering glare.

"Sorry, dearest." Zuko laughed as he rubbed the back of his head.

"_Dearest_, my ass." Mai crossed her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes, turning her eyes away from him. Royally pissed.

Zuko signaled for the remaining crew to leave the area until we docked. The obeyed and the massive bay was empty save for few mechanics maintaining the ship. Zuko walked up to Mai. He stood there for a few seconds trying to make her look at him. Finally, Zuko lifted Mai's chin gently. "Look at me." Zuko said when Mai kept avoiding eye contact. Mai answered him with a glower. "I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"

"Kiss my ass and I'll consider it." Mai stared right into Zuko's eyes. She was still annoyed, but she was smiling a little.

"Whew, if that's all. Pucker up." Zuko stuck his lips out comically.

Mai laughed and shoved him away. "You're such an idiot."

Zuko caught himself and leaned in to peck Mai on her nose, her secret favorite spot to be kissed. "Am I forgiven?"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Mai hid a ghost of a smile.

"Yes! I'm so happy, I could take you right here and now!"

Mai's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Zuko snorted. "I was joking. Why are you so horny today?"

Mai pouted. "Shut up. You've been so busy lately and on the only day off you get in months, you have to rush over here and leave me in heat."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

"I promise after this, I'll have the captain take the scenic route and then I won't leave you alone until you're numb and begging me to leave you alone." Zuko opened his arms to invite Mai in for a hug to seal the deal.

Mai grinned mischievously. "You got it backwards. You'll be on your knees." Mai walked into the hug and wrapped her arms around Zuko's neck.

"Yes, but you'll be on all fours…" Zuko said, gripping her waist and breathing a gentle wave of fire onto her neck.

"Ooh. I love/hate when you do that." Mai pressed herself closer to Zuko.

"Because you're putty in my hands?"

"Shut up and keep going…"

Someone cleared their throat and the two suddenly jumped apart from each other. It was Maito with a red face. "Excuse me, but we've docked."

A hidden blade appeared in Mai's palm. Zuko was the only one to see it and quickly responded first.

"Open the bay doors."

Maito nodded and yelled to the mechanics that worked the doors. "Open the doors! Lower the walkway!"

Light shone in through the crack from the opening of the bay doors, Mai put a hand over her eyes and Zuko's.

"We should've came here at night, I hate the blinding sunlight this early in the day." Mai said, squinting her eyes from the sunlight.

The bay doors have fully opened and the walkway dropped the to Temple platform. Zuko and Mai were about to proceed across, but an explosion rocked their balance.

"Captain?" Zuko yelled, clutching Mai and bringing her closer.

"My Lord, there seems to be a disturbance on the right flank of the ship. The engineers reported that Engines 5 and 6 are damaged… Sir, those engines are vital to the ship. If we don't center the ship… We'll plummet straight down into the severe rapids below. The calculated estimate of fatalities is very high…"

Without hesitation, Zuko nodded, picked Mai up bridal-style, and ran towards the still opened doors. "Brace yourselves!" Were the last words the Fire Lord said, unfortunately, they were lost in the rushing wind. The crew of the Royal Dragon stared off, their faces expressing nothing other than betrayal.

Zuko crossed the bridge right as the Royal Dragon lost it's center and fell to it's side, quickly losing altitude. He set Mai down. "Stay here and find Aang. Hopefully he'll know what the hell just happened!"

"Yeah, yeah. Go be the hero." Mai said nonchalantly. She leaned in to kiss Zuko on the cheek. Then she pushed him off the platform's edge. Zuko looked surprised but then smirked as he free-fell after the ship. Mai dusted off her robes and started walking towards the Temple. She didn't feel any remorse throwing Zuko off the cliff because she simply wasn't worried. If someone told her that Zuko has been sitting around signing papers all day since he became Fire Lord, Mai would stab them, then of course tell them that they're an idiot.

Zuko wiped the smirk off his face. _Time to get serious. _He thought. But a hint of a smile was still on his face. _"Time to see the results of my training!" _

OooOooO

"_How can she dress like that? That's no way to dress a young women her age." _

"_No common sense waltzing around like that. She could be grabbed by a perverted ruffian!" _

"_How inappropriate! There are children around-"_

"You old birds have three seconds before I personally pull the sticks that are clearly stuck up your asses!" Toph had enough of the pompous whispering. The old hens have been gossiping across from her the whole trip and she's had enough. _At first it was pathetic, now it's annoying!_ Toph thought.

For a few seconds, there was a cease in the irritating chatter. But then it started up again.

"_What language!"_

Toph's eyebrow twitched. She kicked the heel of her foot to the ferry floor, promptly flinging the high and mighty hens out of the boat. The other passengers were silent. Then an applause began. It filled the ferry for a full minute before it died down. Toph snorted. _Looks like I wasn't the only one annoyed by those wenches. _

"Next stop! Western Air Temple! Please note that the Avatar will not actually let you proceed into his home! You may not attempt to scale down the mountain side, cross the river, and climb up the stairs to his Temple. Trespassers will immediately be appended by the Avatar. Your punishment will be within his jurisdiction!"

_Ooh, I'm soo scared! _Toph chuckled as she stood up from her seat. She kneeled down and picked up her trunk from underneath. She adjusted it back onto her back and walked down the aisle to the exit doors. She waited to feel the swoosh of the door opening before she stepped of the ferry. Well, for the most part, jumping off the boat to the ground below. As soon as she made contact with the ground, she instantly knew the landscape for the diameter of the next 10 miles. Toph pulled the straps tighter as she walked over to the cliff's edge of the mountain. She felt her side of the trench, the bottom where there was a rushing river rapid, and the structure of the Western Air Temple. Toph smiled. She didn't sense any of the other's means of transportation. That meant that she was the first one there.

"Aw yeah, got here before the other pansies!" Toph laughed out loud, ignoring the odd stares she received from the tourists. Toph was about to commence her celebratory booty dance, but she suddenly heard something from the other side of the trench. A loud thundering noise. _What the hell?_ _It can't be a raining thunderstorm, it's hot as balls out here! _Toph thought as she heard the thunder continue to get louder, closer.

"Whoa, look! It's the Fire Lord's personal War Balloon! How lucky are we to see one up close?"

Then Toph's eyes widened in realization. _Zuko! Damn it! _Toph yelled in her head. She turned around away from the Temple on the other side and bolted.

"Where are you going? You're going to miss it!" One of the tourist yelled at Toph's retreating form.

Toph snorted. Unless she suddenly got her eyesight, she won't be missing anything. She turned around and started running back towards the cliff, past all the tourist yelling at her to stop before she ran right off the cliff. Toph let go of the straps and pulled her arms behind her. Then she waited until she got a few feet away from the edge before pushing her arms forward, launching herself in the direction of the Temple. _If Zuko thinks he's gonna arrive before me, he's gotta 'nother thing coming to him! _Toph thought as she felt the wind rush around her. She thought she was home free and she would make it before Zuko, but she miscalculated where she would actually land. She was losing altitude and she could feel. In the air, nowhere near earth, she was literally blind. _No, no, no, no! SHIT! _

"Ugh!" Toph grunted as she crashed head-on into a pillar of the Temple. "AH!" She screamed as she landed and stumbled on the Temple's floor. Toph lay there as she felt the jabbing pain of her stupidity. _This is exactly what I get for jumping off a cliff without checking! Damn it, my head is killing me! _Toph thought as she put her palm to the floor. She tried to feel where she was in the open Temple. She quickly picked herself up when she felt four familiar presences on the same floor as her. Toph cleared her throat to hide the pain she was obviously in and played it off cool.

"Now that's how you make an entrance!" Toph yelled towards her friends. Then she winced and grabbed her rear. _Ah! My ass is throbbing! I think I broke it…_

OooOooO

_Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Suki_

"What happened?" Katara yelled as she quickly stood up. She looked around, searching to see if the others were okay. She spotted Sokka clawing his way through some rubble, a frantic expression painted on his face.

"Suki! Answer me, please! I refuse to lose you over something so stupid! Say something so I can find you already!" Sokka unclasped his short sword with the hard ball tip and started pounding away the excess rubble.

"Sokka, calm down! You might accidentally strike Suki!" Katara ran over to Sokka and grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away from the rubble. Then Katara gasped. She took a good look at Sokka. There was a cut over his eyebrow, a few bruises and welt on his arms, and his fingernails were bloody. "Sokka, stand still. I have to heal your injuries before they get infected." Katara warned Sokka as she gathered water on her hands from the water pack she had over her shoulder.

Sokka didn't listen and shoved his sister away from him. "I don't care. If you have the energy to nag me, you should use it to help me get Suki from under all this!" Sokka grunted as he picked up another heavy rock with his bloody hands.

"Sokka!"

Sokka and Katara both turned around to see Aang and Suki walking towards them.

Sokka sat there, stunned. He was like that as Suki walked up to him and kneeled down. "Sokka. What's wrong?"

But Sokka stared on. He didn't snap out of it until Suki grabbed his shoulder and gave a gentle shake. Sokka blinked and closed his gaping mouth. "What?"

Suki rolled her eyes. "You had me worried, looking like someone died or something… Oh." Suki looked down to see the rock Sokka was holding with his bloody hands.

Sokka snapped out of it and stood up. "Worried about me? I'm fine. Not a scratch on me!" Sokka played it off even though the side of his face had blood running down it. Sokka smiled as if he wanted to reassure Suki.

Suki ignored him. Her eyes were on the rubble where she saw one of her fans that she must've accidentally dropped in the confusion. It connected in Suki's mind that Sokka ignored his own injuries to find her. Going so far as to dig hard enough to rip off some of his nails. Sokka stood straight up and punched Sokka on the shoulder.

"Ow! Why?" Sokka held his shoulder.

"I hate when you do that!" Suki glared at her husband.

"What? Tell you I'm fine?" Sokka gave Suki an incredulous stare.

"No! Try to kill yourself to rescue me! I'm not that defenseless, Sokka!" Suki threw her hands into the air.

"I know. I just worry, okay…?" Sokka looked away from Suki. Then turned the other way when he saw Aang and Katara hugging a few feet away.

Suki grabbed Sokka's collar and brought him back in front of her. She stood up on her tip toes and kissed him on the forehead, secretly his favorite spot, then pulled him into a hug. "I know you do, Sokka. But I need you to have faith in me. Okay?"

"Okay. Alright." Suki smiled. "But on one condition!" Suki's smiled dropped.

"What?" Suki's shoulders slumped.

"Could you uh- give me another one?" Sokka pointed a finger to his forehead sheepishly.

"No way, your head's all bloody." Suki said, crossing her arms and turning away from him.

Sokka deflated, bringing himself down to Suki's eye level. Falling into Suki's trap. "Mmph!"

"Sorry it's not on your forehead, Sokka." Suki said as she ending the kiss, putting on a apologetic look.

"_I really don't care_…" Sokka said with a goofy grin.

"If you two are done…?" Katara walked up beside them with Aang.

"What's up?" Suki licked her thumb and applied it to the cut above Sokka's eyebrow. A love-struck look still on his face.

"I just want to heal Sokka before he gets any infection. No offense to your method, of course. You must be Kyoshi Island's head healer with that licked thumb technique." Katara smirked at Suki.

Suki rolled her eyes and looked at Aang. "You got a keeper, Aang. Beautiful and a smartass."

"Really? Thanks Suki- Wait a second… Hey!"

Aang coughed, covering his laughter. Katara turned to glare at him. "What? I think I breathed in some dust or something…" Aang said in his defense.

"Mm hmm…" Katara narrowed her eyes and stuck her bottom lip out, she wasn't buying it for a second. She flipped her hair and walked over to Sokka, the healing water in her hands already glowing. "Now this time, _stand still or I'm going to the show you what happens when you don't listen to me like when Aang misbehaves…" _

"…" Neither Sokka or Aang said a peep.

Suki giggled.

"You guys seem relaxed even though there was an explosion…"

Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Suki turned around to see Mai with her usual scowl.

"Hey Mai…" Aang was about to hug Mai, but she pulled out a knife and held it in front of herself.

"No hugging." Mai put her knife away when Aang took the hint.

"Where's Zuko?" Aang asked.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking." Mai remarked sarcastically.

"S-sorry! It's just that he's always with you… I thought he came along…" Aang stutter with his words.

"What am I? The idiot's keeper?" Mai said rhetorically. She was married, after all.

"Did Zuko come or not?" Katara asked firmly. She was always defensive if someone purposely tried to mess with Aang.

"Yeah." Mai said simply.

An angry tick mark formed on Katara's forehead. "_Well_, _where is he?" _Katara hated vague questions.

"I pushed him off the cliff. He's about to rescue the Royal Dragon's crewmen." Mai said finally, having her fun messing with Aang and Katara.

"WHAT?" Everyone yelled, save for Mai who snorted.

"The explosion earlier took out some of the engines on the Balloon. Zuko wanted to play hero."

"Why are you so calm?" Suki questioned as Aang and Katara ran past Mai to the edge of the platform.

"Should I be giddy instead?" Mai asked, checking her nails.

"Ugh!" Suki looked like she wanted to strangle Mai, but Sokka grabbed her shoulder.

"Chill. We need to find out how we can help." Sokka said wisely.

"Fine." Suki dropped it, but no before sticking her tongue out at Mai.

"Very mature." Mai said, walking past Suki and Sokka to sit down on a broken piece of pillar. She crossed her legs, elegantly, and pulled a blade to start carving into her seat.

Meanwhile, Aang got to the platform's edge and looked over the edge, and sure enough, there was a plummeting war balloon. Without any words, Aang looked over to Katara, she nodded. And without a moment's hesitation, they jumped. Aang focused his air bending to let him slip through the wind and fall down faster to catch up to the Royal Dragon. He succeeded in coming in closer to the balloon but what he saw made his eyes go wide.

Zuko had just gotten to the bottom of the massive balloon and put his hands in the air as if to lift it. Then what he did next surprised Aang. Zuko bended fire out of his feet! It was impressive just to have the mastery to bend from the feet but it wasn't that that made Aang stare on, it was because the fire Zuko was bending rivaled the size of Sozin's comet! Zuko was attempting to use the rocket force of his fire bending to slow down the ship.

"Unreal…" Aang said aloud, but then he shook his head. He could beg Zuko to teach him that technique later, right now Aang needed to help Zuko to stop the ship from falling.

Before Aang started to concerntrate, he heard Zuko yelling and quickly flew faster to see if Zuko was alright. That was a mistake. When Aang got close to the Balloon, he almost rammed into it. The whole floating palace stopped it's falling and stood still in the air. Aang sent a jet a wind to comfort his landing on the ship's hull. He landed and looked around to see if Zuko had done the impossible.

Zuko had halted the balloon from falling and held it there. Aang had to get down there quickly so that he didn't miss the opportunity Zuko had given him. Aang jumped off and closed his eyes as the wind rushed past his face.

_Calm. Think of Katara's face. _Aang thought as he breathed in and out to control his breathing despite the adrenaline of free falling without his glider. His eyes and tattoos glowed and he was officially in the ultimate Avatar State. A sphere of air surrounded Aang as he floated in the air down to Zuko at the bottom of the ship.

"ZUKO! I'M GOING TO RELIEVE YOU OF THE WEIGHT OF THE SHIP!" Aang's fused voice with the previous Avatar Kyoshi's own voice yelled.

Zuko was practically sweating his body away with all the power it took him just to hold the ship up in the air with his bare hands. Zuko looked up in surprise and faltered a little but composed himself and held out. "Aang, you don't know how glad I am to see you!" Zuko yelled over the roar of his own flames and the Royal Dragon's engines.

Aang nodded and slammed his palms together. For a few seconds, nothing happened but then the earth from the trench exploded and came together from both sides as a pair of hands. "HAH!" Aang/Kyoshi screamed as they commanded the earthly hands to grasp the ship's hull. A sickening crash of the hull being crushed slightly sounded and Aang/Kyoshi closed their eyes to concentrate further to control the terra firma hold on the ship, they succeeded in taking the weight of Zuko's end. Aang let his breath go, and was about to thank Kyoshi for her cooperation. But Kyoshi left a disturbing plea.

"_Don't depend on the Avatar State anymore. The others might not be able to answer your call anymore…" _Then Kyoshi released Aang's body and faded back to the Spirit World.

I was about to call for her again to make sure I heard right but I pushed it aside when Zuko flew up next to me.

"Great work. Now how do we safely evacuate the crew?"

Aang was about to ask him the same thing but then he remembered something. Aang smirked and brought his hand up, his fingers outstretched. He counted down five seconds.

Zuko was confused but when he heard the rushing water and looked down, he got his answer.

While Aang and Zuko were up in the air, halting the ship, Katara was still falling until she could see the rapids below. She swung her hands in a fluid butterfly motion backwards and the surging river slowed and provided a long smooth slide for her. Katara tensed her legs for the landing and took a deep breath. Katara pursed her lips and let it out, the water slide froze to solid ice. She slid the rest of the way down until she jumped onto a nearby rock and then did a back flip to the river's edge. She released the cooled ramp and calmed herself of the leftover adrenaline.

Katara stood with her feet together and her arms at her side, standing erect. Then she began the motions. She put her arms out in front of her and waved her right arm, commanding the right side of the rapids to slow, and played her left hand to go with the fast paced flow of the top of the rapids. Her left hand was now in harmony with the top of the rapid's flow and she gradually move to and fro to a steady, controlled rhythm. Her right hand had instructed the bottom of the rapids, already serene due to it being the end of the rushing rapids, to stop all together and stay where it was. Katara finally had both sides of the water, the whole river rapids stream, to her precise accordance.

Now was the time to really dig deep and concentrate. Katara thought of Aang, she thought back to the day when she caught Aang simply accessing his inner peace. He stood still for a few moments and then lowered himself, drawing his left leg out to drag in a small half circle in front of him. He swayed his right hand over his eyes as if to wipe a tear away and then swirled in the place he stood. He stopped after one twirl and put his the both of his arms in front of him, his left bent slightly and his right extended fully. Aang walked around in small half circles as if he was evading the training fans at the Temple's Court. He stopped suddenly and pulled his hands together and placed them next to his ribcage. He stood for a beat and then lifted his left leg to take the crane stance. He brought his hands to his middle with his right in a fist and his left in an open palm. He separated them and swung them into a lunar half circle. Aang ended with his feet crossed and then lowered himself to the ground, at the same time crossing his legs to criss-cross.

Katara was now at the zenith of calm. Her eyes were closed, reveling the memory of Aang, and was in inner peace. She stretched her fingers as she held the water in both hands and then she waited for the right moment.

Katara's eyes flew open and she suddenly brought her hands over her head. The whole river transformed into a magnificent pure liquid tower. The fluid citadel grew bigger and bigger until all the water from the river was consumed and formed into it. Katara didn't put her arms down until all the whole stream was empty of all available water. She pushed the water to climb the altitude of the trench faster and then she did the unthinkable. After lowering one of her arms, Katara took a deep breath and blew into Appa's whistle. A few minutes later, Appa touched down on the shore next to Katara. Katara backtracked to Appa, not taking her eyes off the rushing water skyscraper. She used her free hand, that held the bison whistle, and petted Appa on the nose. "Hey Appa. I need you to fly up and hover so I can lift the Royal Dragon onto land above the Temple. You ready?"

Appa bowed his head for Katara to climb on. Katara straddled Appa's head. "Let's go!"

Appa pushed off the ground with his tail and started circling around the tower to give Katara 360 degrees of coverage. Katara had moved to Appa's saddle on his back. Then she used her left hand to direct the water flow upward, bringing her left hand up and down, and her right hand to continue the rotating in the tower. She looked upwards and saw that she had made it closer to the Dragon faster than she estimated. Katara kneeled down and scratched Appa in slow circles, signaling for him to slow down and start to hover below the Dragon. Appa obeyed and slowed his pace. Katara stood back up and put her right hand into a fist and then she stuck her index and middle finger out close together. She quickly twirled her whole hand and forearm around in small repetitive twirls. Pausing only every two seconds. The water tower obeyed and slowed it's rotating. Katara's right hand was by her hip. She had her right hand opened and relaxed it as she eased her palm higher, slowly. The tower followed my movements and gradually rose up. The water made contact with the ship and after a few seconds of making sure Katara had securely grasped the ship, she closed her hand into a fist and, with difficulty for the amount of weight and concentration this all took, Katara raised the ship with her years of practice.

The Royal Dragon started gaining altitude up the trench. It was a slow process but it was working, and that's what truly counted.

"Ah!" Katara's grip on the massive ship was slipping. She let out a grunt of discomfort, the process wasn't going at her favorable speed and she felt like she would pass out any second.

Fortunately, Aang and Zuko were there to help her carry the Dragon. On one side of the lower part of the ship, Zuko was pushing the ship up with his dynamic fire bending feet power. On the other side, Aang was temporarily using the same technique as Zuko, but he was using a jet stream of air to propel his side higher. All together, the three masters worked to help each others weaknesses and ultimately rescue the crew of the Royal Dragon.

About an hour later, they had managed to lift the ship out of the trench, past a gaping Sokka on the Temple platform, and finally set the Royal Dragon down gently on it's landing stilts to rest on the earth floor above the Temple. Aang and Katara dropped to their knees in exhaustion. Zuko wiped his forehead and went to check on his men.

Zuko climbed up to the Command Bridge and opened the hatch. He pulled himself in and asked the nearest person for the status of the crew and ship.

The Captain was the closest and he was strangling the wheel. His expression was still in stunned panic.

"Captain, are you and the crew alright?" Zuko walked up to him.

"Y-yes, My Lord…" The Captain's face still hadn't regained it's color.

"Good. And I'm sorry to leave you in the dark of my plan to rescue the ship. It was kind of a think on the fly type of thing."

"No need for apologies, My Lord… Never lost doubt in you for a moment…" The Captain released his vice grip on the wheel and bowed to Zuko.

"Thank you, Captain. Have the men exit the ship through the hanger doors and climb down the stairs to the Temple. They deserve the rest after the scare they had just went through."

"Yes, My Lord. I'll inform them immediately." The Captain took weighted steps towards the exit of the Comm room.

Zuko smiled at the Captain. He had already seen through the Captain's bluff the moment the captain spoke. Zuko shook his head and climbed back down the ladder to the outside.

"That was really impressive, Katara." Aang praised, propping his elbow up for support.

"It was nothing." Katara said modestly.

"No, it was really cool." Aang sat upright. "The way you controlled that huge mass of water, whoa! And then you maintained it's form to push the whole Royal Dragon out of the trench… Awesome!" Aang arms were busy with the dramatic motions from his tale, but then his arms went straight in the air and Aang fell backwards in an excited heap.

Katara smiled at Aang. She knew that Aang could do all that without breaking a sweat like she did. But Aang was always there to praise Katara on everything she did, even the small things. "That air bending you did earlier was pretty epic too. Since when could you bend out of your feet for that long?" Katara inquired.

"Oh man. What I did was nothing compared to what Zuko did. He was fire bending and stopped the whole ship from falling. He saved all of his crew." Aang said, as usual, he didn't boast his own skills.

Katara's eyes widened. "What?"

Aang heard the nervousness in Katara's voice and sat back up. "Katara, what's wrong?"

"Oh my… My hair! Ugh, I'm all sweaty! I have to get changed quickly! No, no! All of Zuko's men might be hungry! You think they'll be hungry, Aang?" Katara was freaking out with the sudden new company. She didn't like being at her worst with strangers.

Aang tried to calm her down. "Katara, you look fine! And I honestly don't think-"

"Ugh, stop being sweet. I'm serious!" Katara snapped at Aang. Then she bolted upright and ran for the stairs.

Aang deflated.

"Ha ha."

Aang turned around to see Zuko smirking down at him. Aang pouted and averted his eyes. "It's not _funny_."

"Uh yeah, it is. Look what you've done. You drove Katara away for being sweet. Tsk, tsk."

Aang turned to glare at Zuko. "Yeah, you and Mai are the epitomy of a sunshine relationship."

Zuko snorted, unfazed. "I'm gonna tell Mai you said that." Zuko said, walking towards the stairs.

Aang's eyes popped out. "No! I was kidding!" Aang got up and drew an Air Scooter to intercept Zuko.

Zuko laughed and jumped off the cliff before Aang could tackle him. Zuko smirked as he hovered with his jet feet. "What are you waiting for? You must not want to tell Mai since you're not chasing after me."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Aang protested as he looked over the edge warily.

Zuko almost lost his footing when he laughed out loud. "What's not fair? You're an Air bender and you can't fly."

Aang's face turned red. "Shut up!" Aang jumped off the cliff at Zuko. Then he tried his theory on how to fire bend through his feet. He took a deep breath and directed all his firepower into his feet. He succeeded, but only for a moment before an explosion threw Aang back on the ground behind him. "Ugh!" Aang grunted as he rubbed his backside.

Zuko crossed his arms and studied Aang. "You tried forcing all of your power into your feet, didn't you?"

"Ow… How did you know?"

"Because…" Zuko came over to the ground and landed. "That's exactly what happened to me when I first tried it." Zuko put his hand out to help Aang up.

Aang grabbed it and got pulled up. "Are you going to teach me the technique?" Aang asked, looking up at Zuko hopeful expression.

Zuko was about to speak but then he directed his gaze to his left, where the Royal Dragon crew finally gathered outside. "Fine. But on one condition…"

Aang was already jumping ten feet from the ground in joy. He came back down. "What?"

"I want my men to rest while repairs are being made to the Dragon. May they camp out at your Temple?" Zuko switched to his formal business voice.

"Duh. I was going to let your men stay regardless. But now that I get a cool technique out of it, heck yeah!" Aang did a happy jig.

Zuko huffed. "Whatever." Back to his normal annoyed tone. "I'm going to need you to come with me so you can tell my men personally." Zuko walked away.

"Uh okay." Aang followed him to the crewmen.

Captain Maito pushed his way through the crowd and bowed to Zuko, then upon seeing the Avatar, he bowed to Aang too. "It is a honor to meet you, Avatar Aang."

"Same here. And just call me Aang." Aang returned the bow with a easy-going smile.

Zuko rolled his eyes at Aang's informal attitude. "Captain, get the troop's attention."

Maito nodded and turned on his heel. "Attention! The Fire Lord request silence in all ranks!" When everyone stopped their conversations and turned their attention to the Fire Lord and Avatar, Maito backed up until he was next to Zuko. Maito bowed.

"Thank you, Captain. Aang?" Zuko waved his hand in front of the group.

"Thanks." Aang faced the gathered soldiers and engineers. "I'm sorry for what happened to your ship. I'm glad there were no casualties. I'm going to let you make camp in my Temple. Please feel free to make yourselves comfortable while you stay." Aang bowed to the crew.

"Crew?" Maito questioned in a booming voice.

"OUR THANKS, AVATAR AANG!" A roar answered back.

Aang smiled sheepishly. "You're welcome-"

"Hello everyone! You must be hungry! If you would, I've already prepared a brunch that could feed an army!" Katara popped back up next to Aang. She was sweating even more but covered it up with an excessive amount of perfume oils. Her hair was out of place.

Zuko, Captain Maito, Aang, and the whole Royal Dragon company just stood there staring at the frantic woman.

"Oh. Excuse me. I just said that I made brunch for everyone. _Get down to the Temple before I send all of you plummeting down the trench, please._" Katara threatened, still beaming at her guests.

Zuko snapped of it first and signaled for Maito to kick the crew into high gear down to the Temple. Maito immediately waved for his men to get to the stairs. The troops didn't need to be told twice, they bolted for the stairs, not even making eye contact with Katara. Maito held onto his hat while he ran after them.

Zuko gave Aang a 'good luck with that' thumbs up and quickly flew away to the Temple.

"So…? You clean up fast. And uh, you look pretty." Aang had no idea what to say to calm Katara down.

"Thank you, Aang. You're still doing dishes." Katara said simply, turning on her heel and walking away.

"Aww." Aang slumped and made a weak Air Scooter. He wasn't in any rush to get to the Temple.

Meanwhile, downstairs was suddenly bustling with a whole crew of hungry soldiers.

"Did I miss something?" Mai stood up and walked to the Captain whom was currently stuffing his face with spinach puffs. She tapped his shoulder to get his attention. Maito spun around and looked surprised to see the Fire Lady. He quickly swallowed his food prematurely and wiped his mouth.

"Yes, Milady?" Maito covered his mouth due to his breath.

Mai took a step back regardless. "Why are all the men down here clogging their arteries?" Mai said referring to the group of men inhaling ostrich horse drumsticks. She made a note to eat one in front of Aang later.

"Well, the Avatar was gracious enough to let us camp here while the Dragon is undergoing repairs. And Katara prepared food for us and an offer we couldn't refuse. Literally." Maito cringed slightly.

"Hmm. Where's Zuko?"

"The Fire Lord is still 'upstairs' with the Avatar. I think- Oh, excuse me. He's right there!" Maito pointed a finger behind Mai. She looked behind her and Zuko just landed a few feet away from the fountain. "Excuse me, Milady." Maito turned back around to attack the spinach puff platter.

Mai nodded and walked over to Zuko. "Nice shoes. Have fun?"

Zuko smiled and kicked off his now burnt shoes. A catch that comes with fire bending through his feet. Zuko came prepared with another pair of expensive boots. "Yep. Did you see the way I lifted the ship with my bare hands?" Zuko playfully flexed his arms and smirked smugly at Mai.

Mai rolled her eyes. "No, I was looking at Aang's air bending and his ripped body."

Zuko dropped his arms and adopted an irritated expression. "Have you noticed that how hot Katara has gotten?" Zuko threw the smartass comment back at Mai.

"Ew. Last time I checked, I was straight."

"Is that what your underwear said for the day?"

"Ha ha. _You _would know what my underwear says."

"Whoa, I was just kidding. You wear underwear? I've never noticed!"

"What was that? Zuko wants to sleep with his pillow on the couch when we get back?"

"…"

"Yeah, that shut you up."

Zuko looked away. "That was a low blow, Mai."

"Please, don't act like you don't like them." Mai smirked.

"I walked into that one, didn't I?" Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Yes. I'm hungry." Mai clapped her palm.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I don't know. Maybe because I want you to feed me."

"Of course. Silly me. Should I carry you to the dining room too?" Zuko didn't wait for an answer, he casually picked up Mai and walked towards the buffet long table. Zuko passed the table without breaking pace. He got to the door and turned around to push it open with his back. When he got inside he found Sokka, Suki, and Toph sitting at the dining room table eating. Zuko walked to two empty seats at the end of the table and set Mai down. Zuko sat himself down and relaxed in his chair, his head resting on the back of the chair and his eyes were closed. "When did you get here, Toph?" Zuko had seen her with the corner of his eyes when he first arrived to the dining room.

"I was actually the first one here. You were just distracted by my little accident." Toph said with her mouth full, taking a another bite out of her dumpling.

"Little?" Suki put her fork down and stared at Toph, who sat next to Sokka, incredulously. "You took down a whole air ship because you didn't watch where you stepped."

"Who gave you that accurate accusation?" Toph chuckled, nudging Sokka for another dumpling.

"Wait, you caused that explosion- Whoa…" Zuko had whipped his head to glare at Toph but then he got a full view of the earth bending master. Zuko always wondered how Toph dressed herself with her blindness, but never had the guts to ask her. Toph was wearing her old earth nation clothes from when she was twelve. Stress on the word _twelve. _Toph was eighteen now and six years of _growing _up has taken it's toll on the outfit. It was one accidental tear away from coming apart and Toph's bust wasn't helping any.

Mai covered Zuko's eyes with her hand. "Hey, Toph?"

"What?" Toph leaned back into her chair and popped another dumpling in her mouth.

"Just a question…" Mai kicked Zuko's shin when he tried to look around her hand. "Did you dress like that because you thought Sokka was coming?"

Sokka sputtered into his drink.

Suki's eyes widened. She knew Toph used to have a crush on Sokka but she was never stupid enough to confirm it out loud. She stared at Mai, wondering if she had a death wish or something.

"What did you say?" Toph yelled, a faint blush donned on her face as she coughed on her dumpling. "What the hell makes you think that?"

"Gee, maybe because your outfit is about to burst?" Mai smirked.

"What?" Toph blinked. She furrowed her eyebrows and put both her hands to her chest. Realization crossed over her face. "I was wondering why it felt like my clothes were choking me…"

"You mean you didn't know that your outfit is a size too small?" Zuko put Mai's hand down.

"Nope. And I definitely didn't do anything for Sokka." Toph continued eating as if nothing happened.

"Aw man! This teriyaki meat balls are awesome!" Sokka tried to cut into the tension. He stuffed another one in his mouth and reveled in the taste.

"You really like your meat balls, Sokka." Mai snorted.

"What?" Then Sokka realized what Mai was joking about. "Damn it, Mai. Now I can't eat anymore…" Sokka put his fork down and pouted.

"Here, Sokka…" Suki sent a sly glare at Mai and offered Sokka some of her smoked sausage. "Try some of my sausage."

"Ooh. I love sausages!" Sokka attacked Suki's fork.

"Mmph!"

"I'm beginning to think that you weren't even hungry to begin with, _dear._" Zuko shoved a glazed pastry in Mai's mouth before she could make Sokka permanently give up meat with another lewd joke.

Mai crossed her arms and chewed her food. When she was finished, she got up and walked into the kitchen.

Zuko sighed and poured himself a glass of water. He was parched from earlier. He downed the whole cup and relaxed into his chair, content now that he quelled his thirst. "Ah, that hit the spot!"

Sokka smirked and took advantage of the situation with his own joke. He lifted up the table cloth and peeked under the table. "Is that you down there, Mai?" Sokka came back up and laughed.

CHINK!

"…" A star embedded itself into the wall behind Sokka's chair. Sokka felt the air where the steel passed next to his ear.

Suki, Toph, and Zuko laughed at Sokka's spooked expression.

"That's not funny! She could've killed me!" Sokka ducked and hid behind Suki's chair, his sword drawn.

"What's not funny?" Aang asked walking in with Katara.

"The sarcastic assassin made Sokka piss his pants." Toph chuckled at Sokka's expense.

Aang started laughing and Sokka stared at him in betrayal. Katara rolled her eyes.

"Sokka, no swords in the house." She chided.

"What? Why am I getting in trouble? Yell at Mai she started it!" Sokka said standing up and sheathing his sword.

"I didn't start anything. I have Zuko as a witness." Mai came in with a bottle of sake.

Sokka scoffed. "Who do you think Katara would believe? Zuko or her own brother?"

"Zuko is the Fire Lord. He has a higher rank than you. Duh." Mai sat down and poured herself some sake.

"Yeah right! On Kyoshi Island, I'm the king!" Sokka puffed his chest out and propped his foot on a nearby chair.

"Wow. How big is Kyoshi Island again? Half a island?" Mai said, ignoring Sokka's own gravitas voice.

"That's it!" Sokka got his sword out and was about to lunge over the table. But Toph casually grabbed Sokka's foot and yanked him back. Sokka yelped and fell face first into the custard pies. The custard flew into Mai's face just as she started to drink her sake. "I was going to say that you had no chance with Zuko right there, but I think this turned out better than I anticipated." Toph grinned, leaning back her chair to two legs.

"Argh! You're dead!" Mai wiped the custard off her face and narrowed her eyes dangerously at Sokka. A rare moment for Mai to lose her cool. She pushed her chair back and placed three stars in between her fingers.

"Bring it on!" Sokka challenged with his face still covered with custard. Sokka stood up on the table and took a step. "Ah!" He slipped on some leftover custard and fell backwards into Toph.

Toph couldn't feel where Sokka was until it was too late. "Gah! Sokka!" Toph was leaning on her chair too much and the both of them fell down in a heap. Sokka was on top of Toph with his back pressed against her chest. Sokka quickly tried to get off of Toph before he got seriously injured, but his boomerang accidentally got caught on Toph's top. Sokka stood up unbeknownst to what he'd just done.

"Ah! My eyes are burning! What did you put in those pies?" Sokka bent over and searched the table for any water to wash his eyes out.

Toph got herself up and without skipping a beat, punched Sokka on the shoulder. Sokka fell down, clutching his eyes and shoulder. "I try to help you and you fall on me? And why the hell is it suddenly cold as Mai in here?" Toph exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

Aang slapped his hands over his eyes, Katara face palmed, Zuko held Mai back by her arms and Suki didn't know what to do. Everything was in chaos.

"Is this a bad time?"

Everyone, minus Sokka, looked to the entrance of the kitchen. Avatar Roku stood and his expression read that he rather be anywhere else than in the dining room.

_A few minutes later…_

"…He died through his own arrogance." Roku finished retelling the tale of Orion to everyone.

Everything was sorted out quickly with Katara yelling at everyone to act their age and ordering them to clean up. Now everyone was gathered in the parlor room listening to the last of Roku's tale.

"Thank you, Roku. That is the reason why I sent an urgent letter to everyone. I didn't want Aang to have to do it alone." Katara stared at Aang with worry. Aang brought a arm around Katara and invited her into an embrace.

"An evil Avatar? How is that even possible?" Sokka pondered out loud. He was sitting with Suki on a separate love seat across from Aang and Katara's. "I thought Avatars were the epitome of good and justice."

"Hmm. That's a little close-minded. Depends on how he was raised and trained instead of his being born into it." Zuko supplied. He had calmed down Mai and currently had her in his lap, his arms wrapped around her arms and waist just in case.

"It might just be a personal problem not just anyone else's influence. Maybe it was because an emotional event shook him and made him want to seek vengeance or something." Mai added.

"Nah, his parents probably just ignored him and pushed him to venture into their own design for his life as an Avatar. You know, force him away from his childhood and thrust the responsibilities of being an Avatar at an early age." Toph said. She had borrowed a new top from Suki's luggage and had her feet hanging off the armrest of her recliner, her head resting on the other armrest.

"Well, like Mai said, I think Orion had someone close to him killed or taken away from him. Then he sought to seek power and misuse his powers as the Avatar." Suki agreed with Mai's earlier statement. She rolled her eyes at Sokka who looked betrayed that she didn't agree with him instead.

"All very good theories, but we need to figure out how we're going to stop him." Aang ended. He looked to Roku. "What has happened since you left to go back to the Spirit World last night?"

Roku's jaw set and he narrowed his eyes at the table in front of him. Then he looked up at Aang with sad eyes. "As I told you last time, Aang, Orion killed my dragon. But he hasn't stopped there. He's discovered the other Spirit Animals of the Spirit World. Orion has been poaching them since his arrival and is probably doing so as we speak. You have to understand this, the population still has the very senses and emotions as when they were alive. The Spirit World reanimates any and all injuries if they are to ever lose any limbs or get killed…" A single tear fell down Roku's face. He breathed in and let out a strained breath. "The victims of Orion feel the same pain and agony over and as he kills them without mercy. As long as Orion walks the earth of the Spirit World, all life will be in eternal suffering. Fang is one of the many victims on Orion's murder list…" Avatar Roku stood and walked to the opened window. "The previous Avatars, Kyoshi and Kuruk, ignored my warning of Orion's power and rushed to the aid of the Spirit Animals. Though their intentions were just, I chased after them before it was too late. I didn't make it in time. Just as Orion killed Kuruk, he turned to finish off Kyoshi. I witnessed Kyoshi's spirit shoot up into the sky before Orion struck the killing blow. I'm ashamed that I fled before Orion could spot me. I could hear the other Spirit's cries of anguish." Roku fell to his knees in front of the window. He slammed his fist down on the windowsill but it simply phased through. He bowed and stayed like that for a few minutes. "Please… Forgive me." Roku asked for forgiveness just barely a whisper. Then he continued. "I gathered as much of the survivors as I could and hid them away on my island volcano. Then I gave them explicit orders to stay in the basement no matter what. I had Yangchen watch over them as I traveled here to the Real World."

Everyone was stunned.

Even Toph sat up straight and wiped the usual cocky grin she always had on her face. "I'm in. I'm going to kill that bastard."

"He is definitely going down." Sokka clenched his fists. "He will taste my sword."

"Sokka…" Suki looked to Sokka's dark eyes.

"I want to see my knife go into his throat…" Mai whispered lowly.

Zuko held his fist to his mouth, deep in thought.

Aang held Katara tighter as she cried into his shoulder. His own face was quivering and looking the other direction from everyone else. "This is unforgivable…" Aang faced the people that he trusted with his life. "This is going to be the biggest fight we have ever went into. We are going into an unknown world that all of you have never been to. The enemy is ruthless and merciless. I don't even know if your bending will work or not. I'll understand if you don't want to go with me…"

Everyone in the room nodded. Except Zuko.

"Hmm." Zuko let out while he was in deep thought.

"Why are you even thinking about it, Zuko?" Sokka barked at him.

Zuko opened his eyes to glare at Sokka. "Because none of you are thinking of the big picture. We are the world's protectors, if we leave for an unknown world that we don't even know if we're coming back or not, who's going to maintain the peace around the world?" Zuko lifted Mai off his lap and stood up to walk into the middle of the room. "Who's to stop the trespassers and bandits that will come in here and ransack all of your Temple's rare artifacts? Who's going to stop crime in The City of Omashu when there's no captain to train it's men? Who's going to guard Kyoshi Island from pirates? And I know for a fact that if I'm not at the palace the Elders will do everything in their power to throw away my new and improved teachings for peace, they'll revert everything back to the teachings of Ozai. Now I want you guys to think about that before all of you blindly say 'yes' with no hesitation." Zuko studied everybody's facial expressions before returning to his seat and hunching over to hid his mouth behind his intertwined fingers.

"Damn, I didn't think about that… How could I have missed that detail?" Sokka's hand brushed through his hair.

Aang sighed. He knew everything just got into a whole new level of difficulty and they weren't even in the Spirit World yet.

"Someone's coming." Toph said out of no where.

A knock on the door confirmed her statement.

"Come in. The doors open." Aang composed himself.

"I hope we're not too late."

"Even though we took the Eel Hounds, we're still the last ones here."

"But it seems that no one has departed yet. That's good."

Everyone turned in their seats to see none other than the true masters. Iroh, Piandao, and Pakku in their traditional White Lotus robes.

Katara was the first to stand up and greet them, starting with her step-grandfather. "Hello Gram-Gram." Katara wiped away her tears and smiled.

Pakku opened his arms for a hug. He only allowed Katara to get away with that name. "It's great to see you again, Katara. Kanna sends you her love in this hug." Katara stepped into the hug and they stayed that way for a few moments.

"Master Piandao." Sokka bowed to his sword master. "It's great to see you again." He came back up with a small grin.

"The feeling is mutual, Sokka. Have you been keeping up with your training?"

Sokka beamed and pulled Piandao to the couch where he then spoke a mile a minute about the details to his new technique that he's been working on. Suki nodded at Piandao and cringed at hearing this all over again.

Aang bowed to the Grandmaster of the White Lotus, but when he came back up, he smiled. "You don't know how glad I am to see you again, Iroh."

"Yes. I'm sorry to cut the greetings short, but what is this emergency Katara was talking about in her letter?" Iroh's expression in concern.

"The Spirit World is in danger."

All three masters jumped and held onto their chest. "Avatar Roku!" All three of them recovered and bowed in front of Roku. "It is an honor." Piandao said.

The younger generation of masters all shared strange looks.

"You guys know Avatar Roku? How old are you guys?" Sokka tried to piece everything together. Suki smacked Sokka upside the head for his rude question.

Pakku laughed. "No, no. But as Bumi would say 'All old people know each other'."

"Yes. I've known of Roku for his peaceful reign. While my grandfather was the sword master of the Fire Nation he passed down stories to my father and in turn to retell the story to me as a child. I would clean the whole forgery spotless just to hear another story about Avatar Roku." Piandao chuckled at the memory.

"And as Zuko knows, Roku and our family are related. A very long line, but I treat him with the utmost respect." Iroh finished. Then he looked at Zuko with a smile, but saw that Zuko was still sitting down with a serious expression.

Mai nudged Zuko in the ribs. "Wake up!"

"Ah! What?" Zuko got out of his thinking and realized that Iroh and the other White Lotus' were in the room. He stood up and walked up to Iroh. "Hello, Uncle." Zuko offered Iroh a half-hearted hug.

After the hug, Iroh held Zuko by his shoulders. "Zuko, what's the matter?"

"I think I can answer that, Iroh." Roku stepped in as Zuko spaced out again in his thoughts.

"Hold on! If you tell that story one more time, I'm going to lose it!" Toph stood up and walked to the middle of the room. "There's a bastard in the Spirit World that is killing everything in sight. Roku came to the real world to ask for Aang's assistance and Katara sent a letter out for all of us to go up in there with Aang to kick some ass. Everyone agreed besides Sunshine over there. Apparently we can't up and leave the real world to go to the Spirit World because the peace in the Real World is as fragile as a porcelain winged boar!" Toph explained the situation quickly and sat herself back down.

Zuko rolled his eyes at Toph for making it sound simple. "It's not as simple as Toph just explained, but yes, that's what Katara sent the letter out for. But what Toph forgot to explain was the risk of being overthrown from our respected homes if word got out that we weren't here physically."

"I see." Iroh stroked his beard in thought. "But you do not have to worry about that detail anymore." Iroh nodded to Piandao and Pakku. "The Order of the White Lotus is a international organization. We have agents in all four corners of the Nations. Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to see that order and peace are maintained."

Aang beamed at the White Lotus members. About half the burden Aang had his shoulders was lifted by them. "You have my deepest thanks." But Aang had to confirm with Zuko before he could go any further. "Any objections, Zuko?"

Zuko looked around at everyone's expecting faces. "No."

Everyone sighed in relief.

"But I do have another question."

Everyone was about to start complaining but Pakku and Piandao put their foot down to silence them with a stern look. Sokka ignored Pakku and stood up from his seat but then Piandao kept his eye on Sokka the whole time.

"What's your question?" Aang asked eagerly. He couldn't think of any other question that hadn't already been answered.

"How are we even going to get to the Spirit World?"

"Ugh!" Aang and Sokka slapped their foreheads and fell into their seats.

"I have the answer to that. If that's okay with you, Ms. Bei Fong?" Roku asked Toph due to her outburst in answering a question for him. Roku's expression was serious, but Toph couldn't see the twinkle in his eyes.

But she did hear his sarcastic tone. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Toph rolled her eyes.

"Mature." Mai chuckled.

Toph rested her head on the headrest of her chair and flipped Mai off. "That mature enough for ya?"

Mai snorted.

Roku cleared his throat and began to tell of his plan for how they would be able to get in the Spirit World. "I've had experience in bringing mortals into the Spirit World. On the day that I would ask my wife, Ta Min, to marry me I planned a simple picnic where I would propose to her. But it rained and the whole process was ruined. But I wished for that day to be the one, so I shut myself in my study to figure out a way to propose to Ta Min. As I thinking, Yangchen sensed my trouble and came to visit me. I told her of my dilemma and she offered her beneficial advice. Due to her Nation's enlightenment teachings, she discovered that you can bring mortals into the Spirit World as long as the other followers had the same intentions. Later that day, I brought Ta Min to the Spirit World telling her that I wanted this to be a special day. I followed Yangchen's lesson to lay myself and Ta Min down and hold her hand as I pictured visiting my good friend, Hei Bai. After the process, I managed to bring Ta Min to the Spirit World where I proposed to her with a Panda Lily that I picked by our inactive volcano before I left. It was the happiest day of my life when she said 'yes' with no hesitation. Although I missued the powers of an Avatar, I would do it all over again." Roku finished with a genuine smile.

Suki and Katara aww'ed at Roku's story while Mai and Toph gagged.

"So there is a way!" Sokka stood up, triumphant with his index finger to the ceiling. Then he pointed his finger down in between Zuko's eyes. "Got anymore questions now, Zuko? Nope! Then let's get this adventure started! Ah!" Sokka was in Zuko's face when he declared the rhetorical question, but then Mai kneed him in the groin. "Why am I the only one getting hit today…?" Sokka muttered as he dropped the a pile of bricks.

Suki didn't even try to defend Sokka, she thought he had it coming all day.

"Alright guys. Let's get ready."

_10 minutes later…_

Roku had already left his instructions to Aang before he departed back for the Spirit World. He said he needed to relieve Yangchen of her guarding post and let her have as much rest as possible. He would be waiting at Kon's old cave, now vacant due to Kon being one of the first Spirits killed by Orion.

Iroh, Piandao, and Pakku were in charge outside. Piandao had already sent letters out by hawk to the other members of the White Lotus, instructing them to keep watch over the few important locations. Pakku was remodeling the Temple defense slightly to withhold any surprise attack from bandits or enemies that could attack at any moment. Iroh had taken control of the Royal Dragon crew. There were no objections due to the respect the Fire Nation soldiers had for the well known general. After the ship is fixed, Iroh would come aboard and will temporarily take Zuko's throne before the Elders could take the chance. No one would try to overthrow Iroh because he was in the same family line of Zuko.

"Everyone take deep breaths. Calm your mind and body. Look back and imagine whom are what gives you ultimate peace of mind…" Aang instructed to everyone as they lay side by side, holding hands.

They were in the most spiritual room in all of the Temple. Aang's room. Now it wasn't the best choice because played favoritism, it was because when Aang first came to the Western Air Temple, he found the massive room filled with tucked away Nomad treasures and artifacts. Including a statue of Yangchen. Aang thought it would be best to have their bodies be under the watch of a fellow Air Nomad.

"We're ready, Aang." Zuko said for everyone. He gave Mai's hand a gentle squeeze.

"Alright. But before we go, I want to thank each and every one of you. I wouldn't want to do this any other way besides saving the world with my best friends. Thanks you guys."

Katara turned her head to smile a Aang for his heartfelt speech.

"Let's go, Team Avatar!" Sokka shouted excitedly, ignoring Aang's earlier instructions.

They all shared a laugh, grateful for Sokka to release all the tension.

After the laughter calmed down, Aang focused his chi.

"…"

OooOooO

_The Lieutenant shook his head from the stupidity and thought about the future. The slaying of the beast, the well deserved position next to the Great Avatar Orion, becoming an apprentice to Orion! And all the Lieutenant had to do was what he did best. _

_Kill._

Just as Team Avatar appeared in the Spirit World, the Lieutenant released his fire directly towards them.

In the split reaction they've trained all their lives made all the benders throw up their defense just in time. Zuko shielded Mai and threw his hands together to summon a wall of fire, Aang spun a high speed sphere of wind around Katara and himself, Toph stomped a wall of defense in front of herself, but Suki's eyes widened in surprise. Her hand was over her hand fans, but she was frozen in fear at the massive ball of fire quickly coming for her. Sokka acted and threw himself in front of her, taking the scalding fire that got past everyone else's defenses.

"Argh!" Sokka yelled in excruciating pain as he fell on top of Suki.

"SOKKA!" Suki screamed. She got from underneath him and ripped her torso padding off to put under Sokka to lay on. She set him down gently, careful of his burned back and looked down to see if he was still conscious. "Sokka, please… Stay awake!"

Sokka looked up at her through his droppy eyes. "S-sorry, Suki. *cough cough* Old habits die hard…" He wheezed out before he fell to his extensive injuries.

Everyone witnessed Sokka go down and they turned around to unleash their righteous fury. Bending their elements to the max, confirming that their bending still worked in the Spirit World. Aang sent a large high-pitched wind slash, Katara sent ice shards the size of Appa, Zuko unleashed a double-headed dragon blast, Mai threw large daggers dipped in the deadliest poisons of the world, and lastly Toph sent earth tendrils at the Lieutenant.

The Lieutenant's eyes widened as he threw his arms up in defense.

Orion smirked and placed both his hands together and a white spark ignited in front of his palms. The spark popped and a monstrous amount of white fire formed and Orion sent it directly towards Team Avatar's joint attack. The tremendous clashed ended with both side's attacks exploding and throwing both sides back.

In the cloudy battlefield, Aang took advantage and created a platform of earth under the whole group. He set it into motion in the opposite direction of the encounter.

Orion glared at his retreating but calmed himself from his years of self-taught discipline. "Lieutenant, compose yourself!"

The Lieutenant quickly gathered himself and stood at attention. "Yes, My Lord?"

"Starting as of now, my only goal is to find a castle and make myself comfortable in this world. I don't plan on leaving until everyone and everything is under my rule. And that group is _broken._" Orion curtly turned and started walking in the direction of a mountain range ahead.

"Yes, Lord Orion." The Lieutenant briskly turned to follow his new master.

_Let the battles begin… _

XxxXxxX

**(A/N Finally! I'm updated this! And just in time before Part 1 of the season finale of "Legend of Korra". Thanks for reading. And if any of you start singing "Friday" by Rebecca Black, I'll tell Mai…**


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